Broadcast

On air, or broadcast news, can be broken down into three categories, Local news, Network news, and Cable news.

Local news

Local news has seen the biggest decline in recent years, with all three of its major timeslots – morning, evening, and late night news seeing a drop in viewership.

U.S. adults continue to report turning to local TV more than any other form of news, but it seems that there is an apparent age group that turns to local news specifically. While younger generations are turning towards social media and online news, older generations are the ones still watching local TV news.

TV revenue usually follows that of the election cycle, with revenue increasing during election years and decreasing during non-election years. A cyclical cycle such as this causes the local news industry to always fall short of its larger counterparts.

(Word count: 119)

Matsa, K. E. (2016, June 15). Local TV News: Fact Sheet. Retrieved March 07, 2017, from http://www.journalism.org/2016/06/15/local-tv-news-fact-sheet/

Network News

Network news targets a wider audience than local news, and its viewership remains stable due to its larger audience, around 24 million across the three traditional networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Sunday morning talk shows are where all networks saw an increase in viewership, and evening broadcasts brought in the highest revenue since 2012. Both of these increased network news’ total advertising revenue, which has grown 11% over the past three years.

Executives of network news organizations are aware that younger people turn towards digital platforms for their news, and continue to invest in the digital sphere. Revenue may be growing but a stagnant viewership is not helping network news compete.

(Word Count: 107)

Matsa, K. E. (2016, June 15). Network News: Fact Sheet. Retrieved March 07, 2017, from http://www.journalism.org/2016/06/15/network-news-fact-sheet/

Cable News

Cable news is still standing strong, with advertising and subscriber projections showing a continued potential revenue growth.

Partially due to the more dramatic presidential campaign cable news saw a bump in subscribers, with the top three major channels viewership rising by eight percent. Now from 6a.m. and 6p.m. there are around two million viewers on average.

Total revenue across Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC was projected to increase to $4 billion. Advertising and subscriber fees make the most revenue for cable channels like Fox News, whose network grew 15% in 2015, and the continued growth is showing a successful business model.

Cable seems to be standing its ground with the other forms of on-air news, and is taking advantage of the new tools offered by the Internet.

(Word Count: 126)

Holcomb, J. (2016, June 15). Cable News: Fact Sheet. Retrieved March 07, 2017, from http://www.journalism.org/2016/06/15/cable-news-fact-sheet/

(TOTAL word count for section: 360)