April 2009 IB Local Index Reveals Bright Spots Amidst The Competitive Local Online Market
Posted by: Tom Masterman & Arul Sundaram
Internet Broadcasting is proud to debut “The IB Local Index”, a monthly analysis of comScore data for TV station Web sites and their competitors in the top 50 local markets. In this inaugural edition, we are pleased to report that average television station Web site usage grew in April and that station Web sites are continuing to gain share. The disparity between top station Web sites and poor performers, however, is vast, with only a few sites having shown the ability to reach the type of scale that would make them a “must buy” for local advertisers. In future editions, we will examine the trends and best practices that are leading stations to success.
The April 2009 IB Local Index findings:
- Top performers dominate their markets. KSL.com was the top performer, reaching 42% of the Salt Lake City market, and amassing an audience 3.4 times that of the major newspaper site, SLTrib.com. Rounding out the top five performers: WRAL.com, with 27% reach in Raleigh, NC, and the only other site with more than 3 times the audience of the top newspaper site; WAVY.com, with 20% reach in Norfolk, VA; WPXI.com, with 19% reach in Pittsburgh; WSMV.com, with 19% reach in Nashville
- Smaller markets are bright spots. Average local market reach for TV sites in markets 26-50 was twice that of markets 1-10, where media competition is traditionally fiercer and consumers are more finicky. And, while no TV site in the top 10 markets beat the top newspaper site, four sites in markets 11-25 and ten sites in markets 26-50 bested the local newspaper site in local reach.
- Overall local reach growing, but still lagging newspapers. TV station Web sites in the top 50 local markets reached 7.2% of the total local online population in April 2009, up from 7.0% in March and 6.3% in April 2008, but still only half of the average reach of top local newspaper sites (see chart below).
Below are comScore data illustrating reach and engagement performance for three local market tiers for best performers and average performer.
Best Performers
Mean Station Web Site Performance
Main source: comScore Media Metrix Local Market Key Measures Report, April 2009
About the IB Local TV Site Index: The IB Local TV Site Index is a monthly report analyzing comScore Media Metrix data on local TV station site performance in the top 50 local media markets. Produced by Internet Broadcasting, the Index aims to identify themes and trends in TV site performance by examining standard comScore metrics, and well as derivative metrics developed by Internet Broadcasting.
Methodology: The IB Local TV Sites Index focuses on the top ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliated site in each of the top 50 local markets. Also tracked is the performance of the top local newspaper site in each market. Data is examined in aggregate, as well as by three key market tiers: Local markets 1-10, 11-25 and 26-50. The majority of the data are metrics from comScore Media Metrix. Metrics from Nielsen Media Research are also used.
Definitions:
- UVs / 100 TV HHs: Unique visitors per 100 TV households – Derived by dividing the total comScore site unique visitors by the television households as reported by Nielsen Media Research, multiplied by 100 to make the metric easier to interpret.
- Local Market Reach: The % reach comScore metric for a site within its local market.
- In / Out UV Split %: In- and out-of-market unique visitor split percentage – Derived by dividing a site’s comScore unique visitors within its local market by a site’s total unique visitors. In some instances, due to small sample sizes and different local and national sample panels, comScore may report more local unique visitors than total UVs. Sites with these metrics have been factored downward to 100%.
- Local Reach v. Paper: Designated marketing area reach of a TV site compared to the top newspaper site – Derived by dividing a site’s local comScore unique visitors by the local unique visitors of the market’s top newspaper site.
- Avg. Visit Time: The average time a visitor spends on the site per visit.
- PVs / Visit: The average pages viewed per site visit.
- PVs / 100 TV HHs: Page views per 100 TV households – Derived by dividing the total comScore site page views by the television households as reported by Nielsen Media Research, multiplied by 100 to make the metric easier to interpret.
Data For the 14 Local TV Sites that Beat the Top Newspaper Site in Local Reach
Main source: comScore Media Metrix Local Market Key Measures Report, April 2009
Is the data for all our markets available? We’ve beat Jacksonville’s newspaper several months — but April wasn’t one of them.
Hello, can you please post some more information on this topic? I would like to read more.
Steve – Thanks for your comment. comScore Local data does cover all markets, but we’ve found that it tends to be most useful in larger markets. We’ve analyzed the top 50 markets in our surveys, so beyond that it’s tough for us to comment. As far as you beating the Florida Times Union, we’ll try to publish these types of lists again, so look for your site then!
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