Market Profile: Phoenix

Once the fastest-growing market in the country, Phoenix (DMA with Prescott, Ariz.) growth has slowed over the past three years.

And while the building industry, a big part of the local economy, is slowly starting to reset itself, the red-hot debate over Arizona’s new immigration law has proved to be a double-edged sword for Phoenix media outlets. Businesses have suffered from boycotts slowing the recovery, but news ratings are up, about 10 percent for local TV newscasts. On the bright side, political has been brisk for the Aug. 24 Senate primary, accelerating into the fall with a governor’s race and several House seats in contention.

In contrast to the general population, the Hispanic market is booming, making Phoenix the second-fastest growing Hispanic market in the U.S. Compared to a modest 0.9 percent growth in all TV households, Hispanic TV households increased 2.7 percent to 391,770, lifting the area’s rank one place to become the seventh largest Hispanic market.

Capitalizing on the growing Spanish audience, Univision Communications’ owned-and-operated KTVW-TV has a strong hold on the local news races in early news at 5 p.m. and late news at 10 p.m., besting all five Anglo newscasts by a wide margin in key demos. The company’s KHOT-FM, a Regional Mexican format, is the No. 6-rated radio station in the metro and the ratings leader among the seven other Spanish-language radio stations.

Competition is fierce among the five Anglo TV stations, whose local newscasts are separated by just tenths of a rating point. Leading the pack in all dayparts except for the 10 p.m. late news is KSAZ-TV, Fox’s O&O. KSAZ’s 9 p.m. late news outrates all late newscasts, even KTVW. KPNX, Gannett’s NBC affiliate, just edges out KSAZ in late news, followed by KPHO, Meredith’s CBS affiliate, and KNXV, the E.W. Scripps ABC affiliate.

In mornings and early news, KSAZ competes with Belo’s KTVK, one of the most successful indie stations in the country, producing more than 50 hours of local news per week. In January, KTVK expanded its early morning news program, Good Morning Arizona, by an hour to 10 a.m. News outlets are also waking up Phoenix earlier than ever, a trend taking hold in many metros. In August, KPNX will start its early morning news at 4:30 a.m., joining KPHO, KTVK and KSAZ, which moved up its a.m. news in March.

Despite the tight news races, three stations—KPHO, KSAZ and KNXV—cooperate in a one-year-old local news service to gather and share video. KPHO, KPNX and KTVK also share a helicopter for coverage.

Gannett announced plans in April to consolidate all its local media operations—including KPNX, The Arizona Republic, La Voz and other print and digital properties—in the building currently occupied by the The Republic in downtown Phoenix.

The Republic’s sole competitor, the East Valley Tribune, is still standing after being nearly shut down by its former owner Freedom Communications, which declared bankruptcy last fall. At the last minute this past March, 1013 Communications bought the paper and Freedom’s other Arizona papers. The new owner cut 40 jobs (20 percent of the staff) and trimmed distribution.

With 300-plus days of sunshine a year, Phoenix is a big out-of-home market and the appropriate headquarters for the two largest out-of-home media players, CBS Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor. Both offer broad coverage with traditional billboard and poster formats.

In addition, CCO has 20 digital boards, organized into five networks, most along I-10 and I-17, the most traveled roadways in the area. CBS also has some digital boards and offers advertising on the Phoenix Light Rail system, street furniture, transit shelters and mall kiosks.

Clear Channel and CBS Radio are also the two biggest radio owners in town. Four of CC’s eight stations are among the top 10-highest rated stations, led by Hot Adult Contemporary KMXP-FM and Adult Contemporary KESZ-FM at No. 1 and No. 2. All three of CBS Radio’s stations are in the top 10 with Classic Hits KOOL-FM at No. 3, Top 40 KZON-FM at No. 7 and Country KMLE-FM at No. 10. Rock is strong in Phoenix with Sandusky’s KUPD-FM at No. 4 and Bonneville’s Adult Hits KPKX-FM at No. 9.    

Vital Stats

TV DMA Rank: 12
Population 2-plus: 4,982,357
TV Households: 1,873,930
TV Stations (Net/Ind/Multicast/Public): 7/23/2/2
Wired Cable Households: 971,460
Radio Metro Rank: 15
Population 6-plus: 3,300,300
Radio Stations (rated): 44
Newspapers (Daily/Weekly): 9/29

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