NAB Amplify
Despite facing revenue shortfalls, budget cuts and unprecedented operational challenges, local TV stations aired more news in 2020 than ever recorded by a recent Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) newsroom survey.
https://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/local-tv-and-radio-news-stations-burned-bright-during-covid/
2020 saw a record amount of local TV news for the second year in a row. In addition, a record number of stations are running local news. COVID was the hot topic as audiences sought up to date local information, but the pandemic also undermined news rooms in TV and radio across the country,
The RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey was
conducted in the fourth quarter of 2020 among all 1,762 operating,
non-satellite television stations and a random sample of 3,379 radio stations.
A new record of 1,116 TV stations aired local news in 2020,
a rise of 18 from 2019. Stations also aired another record amount, in hours, of
local news. Increases in weekday news offset slight decreases in weekend news
for an overall net gain in average hours of local TV news, per the report.
On average, stations in all market sizes and all staff sizes
of 21 or more increased the amount of news in minutes. Among network
affiliates, news time on air increased for all except Fox. CBS stations were
most likely to increase the amount of news from 2019. These increases aren’t
expected to lead to further increases in 2021.
Budget Cutbacks
2020’s growth in the amount of news produced came amid a
year of cutbacks for news budgets. Just 16.3% of TV stations report budget
increases in 2020 versus 36.8% that did in 2019. Nearly 30% report experiencing
budget cuts in 2020 versus the 9.1% that did in 2019.
As news profitability decreased, the percentage of station
revenue generated by the news department remained steady, though most news
directors (77.7%) didn’t know their station’s revenue breakdown.
However, to look at the bigger picture of the business of TV
news during 2020, the Pew Research Center reports that, for local TV
news, the loss of ad revenue in the pandemic’s early days didn’t exceed gains
in retransmission revenue.
Several groups set record revenues, with gains of 25 to 40
percent, with some significant exceptions such as Sinclair, which laid off
more than 550 employees as the pandemic slowed economic growth.
Indeed, the report says COVID “has had a stark and lasting
impression” on local TV newsrooms, with more than 90% of TV news directors
reporting their newsrooms were still feeling significant impacts as 2020 ended.
More than 80% report at least some staff remain remote, a move that may in some
cases be permanent. Stations with more staff and those in bigger markets were
most likely to have staff continuing to work remotely.
Radio News Check
Radio stations also report running more minutes of news in
2020. Some 27.1% of radio stations report an increase in the amount of news
they aired, up by more than 10 percentage points from 2019, per the report.
Larger stations, stations in larger markets and public stations were most
likely to produce more news.
While more than half of radio news managers report their
budgets did not change in 2020, the percent saying their budgets decreased
doubled to 18.2%. More radio departments reported cuts across market and staff
sizes.
The Tow Center COVID-19 Newsroom Cutback Tracker reports
budget-related cutbacks in more than 700 radio newsrooms, including
company-wide cuts to staffing, programming or hours for at least 8 major
station groups.
The RTDNA concludes
that COVID had noticeably different and mixed impacts in local radio news
compared to TV. Eight percent of radio respondents report coronavirus or the
associated economic disruption ended their local news programs altogether. In
contrast, just over 40% of radio respondents report no ongoing significant
impacts to their stations. Among those that do, maintaining remote staff was
the most reported impact.
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