May sweeps brought some bad news for all four of Boston’s affiliated stations.
The Boston Herald reports WCVB, WHDH, WFXT and WBZ lost viewers at 6 and 11 p.m. in May 2016 compared to May 2015 in adults 25-5 demo.
“We are all down,” a TV insider told the Herald. “You never like to see it. But there’s always an ebb and flow.”
Viewership was down overall from the February sweeps period when it gets darker earlier and more people are inside watching local news. There is also more original network programming in February than May, when some reruns begin.
But the overall trend is that viewers are leaving TV and opting to get their news elsewhere, on phones, computers, etc. And local stations keep adding newscasts in an effort to hang on to their audience.