Content area
Still in its infancy, Time Warner's Bay News 9, Tampa, Florida's 24-hours local news channel, is quickly growing out - as well as up. But media buyers are unsure if the channel's strength - news on demand - will also forestall any inroads against local broadcast stations' traditionally scheduled newscasts. While Bay News 9 may have difficulty making a dent in the more heavily watched evening newscasts on broadcast stations, it is forging nonexclusive relationships with local newspapers to get a leg up on the morning's headlines.
Full text
STILL IN ITS INFANCY, BAY NEWS 9, TAMPA, Fla.'s, 24-hour local news channel, is quickly growing out-as well as up. Launched by Time Warner last October, the startup is already enmeshed in discussions with Hearst-Argyle's WB affiliate, WWWB, about providing that currently newsless TV station with a local newscast of its own. Also interested in Bay News 9's news services are several networkaffiliated radio stations in the market, said Elliott Wiser, Bay News 9's general manager.
Bay News 9 arrives at a time when the notion of just how watchable a news channel might be is under debate by media buyers and sellers along the Florida Gulf Coast. For his part, Wiser, who previously served as news director for Northwest Cable News in Seattle, believes that successful news channels must program hard news constantly. In the case of Bay News 9, that means a news "wheel," which repeats every 30 minutes. "When people tune in looking for news and they see a cooking show, you've lost them," Wiser said.
But media buyers are unsure if the channel's strength-news on demand-will also forestall any inroads against local broadcast stations' traditionally scheduled newscasts. "They might make a dent, but local news is highly habitual. You don't see a lot of fluctuation in news viewership," said Peter Insley, a Telerep sales manager in New York who has sold advertising for broadcast stations in the Tampa-St. Pete market.
Still, Bay News 9 has made inroads, buyers said, with the morning rush crowd and with viewers who periodically check in while watching other daytime programming. And there are other advantages: "They have the ability to cross-promote [Bay News 9] on all their other cable channels," said Bruce Robinson, media director at Landers & Partners in Tampa. But daytime viewers who sample the news channel might siphon viewership from The Weather Channel and Headline News, one buyer noted. "The danger [the channel poses to broadcast stations] is at the early morning news, from 5 to 7:30 a.m.," said Jennifer Leigh Crawford, a media buyer at Jay Advertising in Tampa.
That might mean a challenge in the morning for Fox owned-and-operated station, WTVT, which, according to its gm David Boylan, programs "more local news than any Fox station in the country"-three and a half hours of which is run in the early morning. "WTVT might be affected," said Jay Biernacki, an assistant media buyer at Levlane Advertising in Tampa, "because it's so locally focused. NBC [affiliate WFLA] has much more of a national, network-fed morning news."
While Bay News 9 may have difficulty making a dent in the more heavily watched evening newscasts on broadcast stations, it is forging nonexclusive relationships with local newspapers to get a leg up on the morning's headlines. There is a working relationship with the Tampa Tribune, which gives a glimpse of the paper's major stories and uses the newspaper's staff as on-air talent. There are also newssharing pacts with the Lakeland Ledger and Bradenton Herald, and a possible partnership with the St. Petersburg Times. -CB
Copyright ASM Communications Jan 5, 1998