The Project For Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) has released a thorough report on how local TV performed in 2010 and, for a change, it’s filled with plenty of good news. Revenue was up, audience declines slowed (chart above), and, according to the report, local stations “remain Americans’ No.1 television news choice.”
Here are some key findings:
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- Audience: While local TV viewership has declined in the past several years, the audience numbers remained nearly flat in 2010.
- Revenue: Local TV stations saw a 17% increase in ad revenue.
- Retrans: The fees brought in from carriage agreements is projected to have topped $1 billion.
- News programming: The average number of hours of local news programming that stations provide continues to increase.
- Independent stations: News viewership for non-affiliate stations was up 35%.