KATV Reigns King in the May Nielsens

KATV-TV, Channel 7, saw viewer increases for each of its weekday news shows, according to the May household TV ratings from Nielsen Media Research of New York.  

(To view the May numbers in a PDF, click here.)

All of KATV’s local news shows experienced household rating and share growth over the May 2011 Nielsen books, and KATV beat Little Rock market competitors KARK-TV, Channel 4; KLRT-TV, Channel 16; and KTHV-TV, Channel 11, in every comparable time slot.

Notably, KATV’s 5 a.m. newscast saw a 12-point increase in household share and its 6 a.m. show saw a more than nine points in household share.

KARK and KTHV both saw household rating and share decreases in most time categories. They were about tied for second place in ratings for the shows at 5 a.m., midday, 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

KTHV’s most striking change was a drop of 12 points in its share of tuned-in TVs at 5 a.m. The points appear to have migrated to KATV’s 5 a.m. show.

Nick Genty, KATV news director, said the station has dedicated more resources to the morning shows since early 2011. Four producers now work on the shows, rather than just one a year ago, Genty said. The on-air Daybreak team of Melinda Mayo, Alyson Courtney and Chris Kane were in place this year for their first May rating book, as well, he said.  

Each rating point represents 1 percent of the 571,630 households in the market. Each household share point represents 1 percent of the number of homes with TVs tuned into a station at a given time.