Tag Archives: global edmonton

Media Monday Edmonton: Global Edmonton’s Tim Spelliscy on local news ratings

By Mack D. Male ·

Last week the first ever BBM PPM (Portable People Meter) ratings for television in Edmonton were released. Known as the Fall 2011 survey, the ratings cover the time period beginning September 12, 2011 and ending December 18, 2011. The ratings are further broken down into three demographic categories: 18+, 18-49, and 25-54. The top show in Edmonton? Big Bang Theory, on CTV Edmonton, with an average of 117,000 viewers per minute during each broadcast. In the 18+ demographic, Global Edmonton scored 5 of the top 10 shows, followed by CTV Edmonton with 4, and CBC Edmonton with 1.

That’s interesting, but what I really care about is local news, stuff that is produced here in Edmonton. Here are the numbers for local news for the 18+ demographic:

18+

Here are the numbers for local news for the 18-49 demographic:

18-49

Here are the numbers for local news for the 25-54 demographic:

25-54

All of that data comes from: BBM Canada PPM, Edmonton EMA, Sep 12-Dec18/11; min 3 airings. AMA means average minute audience, the average number of viewers per minute during the broadcast.

What I find particularly interesting is that in the 18+ demographic, the six o’clock news for both Global and CTV do quite well at #3 and #10 respectively, but if you look at the 18-49 demographic they drop considerably, to #26 and #44. That suggests to me that seniors make up a big chunk of the audience for the local six o’clock news. Not an encouraging sign if that’s your business.

Still, as far as as news is concerned it was a strong result for Global Edmonton, and their news release says as much:

Edmontonians have made it perfectly clear: their number one choice for news is Global Edmonton. According to BBM PPM (Portable People Meter) Fall 2011 survey, all of Global Edmonton’s newscasts continue to win their timeslots – morning, noon and night in total audience and in all key demographics including A18-49 and A25-54. Edmonton was recently added to the BBM’s electronic PPM system, providing a much better estimate of viewing habits.

tim spelliscyGiven that Global did so well in the first survey, I wanted to hear what Tim Spelliscy, Global’s Regional Director for News in Alberta, thought of the results. He agreed to answer my questions via email.

  1. Why is the BBM PPM survey important to Global Edmonton?

This is the first extensive survey using new (PPM) technology, so we know it’s a more accurate reflection of actual viewing rather than someone trying to recall what they watched and filling out a survey by hand. It reflects viewing patterns that we felt were happening, so it confirmed what our own research had been telling us about audience support.

  1. What’s the impact of being #1 in news?

Edmonton is a strong news market with excellent production provided by several local stations, so to come out as the top news station by such a wide margin is very flattering. We are grateful for this kind of support, and it’s fantastic for all of our sponsors and community partners to know that they are associated with a very strong local news brand. I think the confirmation that we are number one will bring new viewers to our news programs. They want to see what they’ve been missing.

  1. The News Hour is the 3rd most watched program in the 18+ demographic, but it falls to 26th when you narrow the demographics to 18-49. Does that concern you?

We’re still the top news program in 18-49, and the numbers are close with a lot of other shows, but it does give us an area we can work on. We can always do a better job attracting younger viewers.

  1. What’s on the horizon for Global Edmonton? How are you going to remain #1?

We’ve got to keep doing the small things right to remain number one. We have to focus on story selection and story treatment and we need to be on top of breaking news and ensure we are covering the stories that viewers really care about. That seems simple to do, but it’s not. I think there are lots of areas where we can improve the news programs we produce, but there won’t be any major overhauls – just some tweaking. We also need to continue to be the local news leader in our use of technology. We’ve done well with an early conversion to HD and we have the only television news helicopter in our city. We have some good ideas about what changes and improvements we can make next – stay tuned!

  1. Which of the other top Global shows is your favorite?

It’s Glee for sure. We try to watch it every week or I set my SHAW PVR and watch Glee on the weekend. Good characters and good music. It’s light, funny and an “escape”!

Thanks to Tim for answering my questions!

I look forward to the next survey results.

Twitter, Embargoes, and Breaking News

By Mack D. Male ·

At the end of March, Global Edmonton’s Lynda Steele, one of our city’s most prominent media Twitterers, abruptly said goodbye and deleted her account. She suggested that Global was consolidating accounts, which understandably raised the ire of many local users (for more check out Adam’s post). Last week, a different truth emerged, thanks to a tweet from CBC’s John Archer. He posted this PDF (archive) of a letter sent from the provincial government’s Public Affairs Bureau to Global Edmonton (it has been clicked more than 550 times). In it, PAB Managing Director Lee Funke informs Global Edmonton that for breaking the budget embargo, they would be denied access to any embargoed information until the end of 2010. Lynda was the one who broke the embargo, by posting tweets before the 3:20 PM budget address, so that’s likely why she left Twitter (though there may be other reasons too).

Much has already been written about whether or not the decision is warranted, and even whether or not we need embargoes in this day and age. For more, check out Dave’s post. As someone who continually pushes for open, accessible information, I think you can guess where I stand. And with that in mind, and in addition to the PDF letter above, here are some of the facts.

The four tweets that started all of this, written by @lyndasteele:

BREAKING BUDGET NEWS – Another record deficit, more money for health care and hope for recession recovery. #yeg #ableg [2/9/2010  3:16:44 PM]

The budget deficit for the coming year is projected to be 4.7 billion, almost double what was projected in last year’s budget forecast. [2/9/2010  3:17:08 PM]

Most of the new spending is going to health. 1.7 billion dollars more this year, [2/9/2010  3:17:20 PM]

Edmonton will receive about 100 million dollars less fr province – for Calgary the shortfall could be 150 million. #ableg [2/9/2010  3:17:53 PM]

And then, for whatever reason, she didn’t tweet again until 5:17:01 PM to plug Hugh MacDonald talking about the budget on the Early News.

Her final tweet:

Hey all – Global consolidating twitter…for all your daily news – check out @globaledmonton – take care – it was nice to know ya! [3/31/2010 1:37:41 PM]

It didn’t take long after that was posted for the conversation to get underway. Dozens and dozens of tweets were posted defending Lynda, and asking for more information on the decision. Of course, only a handful of people knew what was really going on, and none of that made it onto Twitter until the letter was posted.

Global Edmonton itself followed up with a tweet a couple of hours later at 3:58 PM:

GM Tim Spelliscy corrects bad scoop. GE is NOT consolidating accounts, not now or ever. Our personalities will continue to Twitter. [3/31/2010 3:58:38 PM]

Shortly afterward, there was a @fakeLyndaSteele account and the conversation continued for a day or two.

Will this affect social media use by the media?

There’s not much to say about the embargo, is there? There were clearly defined rules broken, and as a result Global Edmonton faced consequences. I think you could make a strong case against having embargoes in the first place, but that isn’t going to change what has already happened.

I do think it’s unfortunate that Lynda Steele is no longer on Twitter because of all of this. Not that I thought she was the best or most trustworthy user, but she was a highly visible member of the media experimenting and pushing the boundaries. I hope that this debacle doesn’t turn other members of the media off from exploring further social media use. Instead, I hope this can be used as a case study to learn from.