The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 4

A6 I I IE VANCOUVER SUN, FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2001 THE FRONT. Vancouver's broadcast scene gjgggg The ratings measurement service Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM) introduced electronic measurement devices, called people meters, to the Vancouver and Victoria regions three years ago. Electronic people meters complicated, unpredictable provide a more accurate reflection of audience size than the old systems of weekly diaries filled out by hand. People meters have been used by Nielsen Media Research in major cities throughout the U.S. since 1986, and are today considered to be the industry standard for measuring the size of a TV audience.

The following figures reflect viewing patterns for local news in Vancouver, the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley and Greater Victoria over a lCsrionth peri od between Oct 2, 2000 and Aug. 12, 2001. The total number of potential viewers age two or older is 2.9 million. If one counts adults only (18 or older) that total is 2.4 million. TV stations and their advertisers no longer consider households using television (socalled HUT numbers) critical when weighing ratings.

Demographic target groups are more important Numbers that reflect such factors as the viewers' age, gender, income level and ethnic background are more valuable to TV stations and advertisers. Adults 18 1S49 2554 1 Supper hour News Hour (BCTV combined) 237,000 71,000 85,000 Global News at 6 (CKVU) 65,000 Canada Now (CBC) 29,000 25,000 31,000 9,000 9,000 VTV News at Six 16,000 9,000 9,000 Early evening Canada Tonight (BCTV) 133,000 35,000 43,000 Early News (BCTV) 100,000 30,000 6,000 son is officially under way across Canada and in the U.S. Ironically, VTV's late-night newscast outperforms its supper hour newscast suggesting viewers are in the mood for local news at 11. VTV today is the only option then for local news. But even if VTV loses viewers once it moves its late night newscast to 1130, the station will gain from having CTV News with Lloyd Robertson at 11.

Hurst, for one, is reasonably optimistic "We have done a lot of studies about marketplaces and what was required when you move into a marketplace like this," Hurst said. "Experience in other major markets of this size has shown that when you're building a program the tendency is to have people come in, invest a lot of money, get the best reporters they can. They then go out and work hard and develop stories and do exclusives, and do all the right things. And then the first ratings book comes out and they're disappointed. A lot of stations then say, 'It didn't work.

The big guy and big girl on the block are going to be there forever, so let's pull But if you stick with it, through the second book and third book and fourth book, you start to see yourself grow, you start to see the other guy lose a bit. And then, experience shows, when you really start to grow, people start to catch on. And then the changes can be dramatic." For his part, brand loyalties aside, Tomik believes the real winner in the coming news wars will be the viewer, thanks to the soon-to-be-remodelled CHEK-TV and CKVU-TV, new stations like Moses Znaimer's Victoria station, The New VI, owned by CHUM Ltd, and the religion-oriented NOW Television, together with revitalized newsrooms at BCTV and VTV. "The amount of service available to the viewer," Tomik said, eye on the overnight ratings once they start coming in on Sept. 4, he won't dive off a cliff if the numbers take a sudden downward turn after only a day or two.

"This is a long-term fight," Wyatt said. "Content is king. It always has been. Content is what drives us." And content Wyatt suggested, is measured by consistency. Unlike other local newscasts, BCTV's true measure of strength is that it manages to hold on to its audience throughout the hour.

The trend in local news across North America is for a large audience to tune in at the beginning for the headlines, only to drift away as the hour wears on. Interestingly, while the media attention and potential profits are focused on the supper hour, Stanger, for one, sees a potential battle shaping up in the early morning, where CTVs Toronto-centric Canada AM will move to VTV, freeing BCTV to focus exclusively on B.C. news. If recent viewing patterns hold B.C. viewers have shown little empathy for or patience with Toronto-centric programs in the past Stanger believes BCTV could see significant gains in the early morning.

All bets are off late at night, however. VTV will have to move its late-night newscast to 11:30 p.m. to accommodate CTV News with Lloyd Robertson at 11. BCTV, in turn, is moving its News Hour Final ahead to 11 p.m, and expanding it to a full hour. CIV News with Lloyd Robertson is seen by an estimated 130,000 viewers in the Vancouver, Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley and Greater Victoria regions, according to BBM figures for Oct.

2. 2000 through Aug. 12, 2001. A further 73,000 viewers watch News How Final on BCTV at 1130 p.m. When the two collide head-on at 11, as they will beginning Sept 3, the result may be ratings mayhem.

That is just one reason why Robertson will CHEK 6 Early News 48,000 9,000 11,000 From Al It's a very important transaction from our point of view." Hurst concurred. "If you look at the numbers for six o'clock newscasts North America-wide, you'll find they are twice as large as network newscasts at 11. And that critical mass is still there, powerful. All those other issues about specialty channels eating away at the core audience they're all true. But the fact is that, for news and public affairs at the supper time period, the critical mass is solid and vibrant, and advertisers want it.

Suppertime newscasts for local stations are very profitable" Vancouver's eccentric broadcast scene is considered by many media analysts to be the most complicated and unpredictable big-city television market in Canada. In Toronto, media analysts who first applied the "wild, wild West" description to the Vancouver television scene, predict an old-fashioned, no-holds-barred, bar-room brawl once CTV relaunches VTV as CTV BC, and Global stamps its imprint on BCTV once and for all. BCTV has the most to lose. Its lion's share of the local news market unique by North American standards because nowhere else does a single station dominate a local news market the way BCTV does has some analysts wondering if the Burnaby station can keep the numbers up. Hurst, a one-time war correspondent and former president of CTV News, is taking the long view in local news, regardless of what happens with the national newscast He sees the rebuilding of Vancouver's lowest-rated nightly newscast as a three- to five-year process that will demand both patience and sound news judgment By hiring Pamela Martin and Bill Good away from BCTV, Hurst admits he has made his newscast older but that is in keeping with CTVs tradition of maturity and credibility, he says.

VTV's days of chasing fickle 18-year-old snowboarders are over, Hurst vows: VTV, newly remodelled as CTV BC, will target 25- to 54-year-olds, bucking an industry trend in recent years that has seen TV stations and networks chase younger and younger viewers in an effort to satisfy advertisers' demands for free-spending youths who haven't established their brand loyalties yet "We have been very consistent with our plans to date," Hurst said. "You build a news audience by working every single day, by beating the other guy to the story, by doing a better job on the story, and by telling stories that are absolutely relevant." For his part, BCTV news director and executive producer Steve Wyatt is sanguine about his top-rated newscast's chances. He does not buy some media analysts' argument that BCTV has the most to lose because it is the runaway leader. Nor does he buy the similar argument that suggests VTV has the most to gain, because it sits at the bottom with nowhere to look but up. News Hour may have lost high-profile faces Martin and Good to VTV, he says, but the newscast has retained veteran anchor Tony Parsons and a stable of battle-tested reporters.

Most importantly, BCTV has held on to experienced news veterans like assigning editor Clive Jackson and editor Chester Grant. Wyatt has added reporters in recent weeks BCTV is expanding its weekly news coverage by a full seven hours as of Sept. 1, for a weekly total of 45 hours and has shuffled several junior anchors, including Jill Krop and Reg Hampton, into high-profile anchoring positions. Wyatt has the luxury and pressure of being the man to beat. Like Hurst and VTV news director Tom Walters, however, he does not believe the success of a local newscast will be determined overnight While confessing that he will keep a watchful VTV News at Five 8,000 5,000 4,000 News Hour Final (BCTV) 73,000 23,000 31,000 Global News at 11:30 (CKVU) 27,000 15,000 15,000 CHEK Late News 15,000 6,000 7,000 I la Noon Hour News (BCTV) 60,000 18,000 21,000 CHEK News at Noon 9,000 2,000 3,000 Morning BCTV Morning 30,000 15,000 17,000 VTV Breakfast 9,000 6,000 6,000 host CTV News from Vancouver "and the diversity of it, is going the week-ofSeptw 17r the same-'to go-up-substantially this fall week the newnetwork TV sea fron) what it Was last year." i iflv i By buying 3 brands, you helped us ccntribute in cc-puters end schools.

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