Survey: News on Local Broadcast Channels Draws 8-12 Times as Many Viewers as Streaming, but Does it Matter?

Broadcast channels are in a precarious position. On the one hand, there’s plenty of free TV out there; on the one hand, 75% of consumers now think of ad-supported streaming as a viable replacement for cable. On the other, 76% of Americans report still using broadcast TV daily, suggesting that broadcast channels still serve a valuable role in the life of most people in the United States.

A new survey from TVB shows that broadcast channels, and particularly news programming aren’t going anywhere. It recently commissioned a survey in five major media markets: Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. TVB’s findings indicate that local broadcast news programming in these markets outdid subscription video-on-demand sources by drawing 8-12 times as many viewers on a given day.

“In response to industry reports about growing streaming viewership, TVB did an analysis comparing local broadcast TV news audiences in five geographically diverse LPM markets and streaming service viewing in those same markets,” TVB chief research officer Hadassa Gerber. “The analysis included 4,942 programs on six SVOD services (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+, Disney+ and HBO Max) and up to 79 local news programs in each of the five markets.”

“In each market, local broadcast TV news had 8-12 times more adult 18+ viewers than the streaming platforms combined!” Gerber went on. “Due to measurement reporting limitations, the streaming audiences included both ad-supported and ad-free subscribers. Ad-supported platforms are what marketers need to reach consumers, so it is important to note that if the ad-supported streaming audiences could be culled from the total streaming audience numbers, local broadcast TV news audiences would surpass subscription streaming by even greater than 8-12 times margins.”

TVB sampled Nielsen ratings from a random day (February 15) for these 4,942 streaming programs, and compared them to the same day’s ratings for all local news programs from every station in a given market. On their face, its numbers do indeed indicate streaming services were outperformed by local news broadcasts by wide margins. If TVB’s numbers did not include ad-supported tiers on SVOD services like Netflix and Disney+, streaming would fall even further behind.

There are two important caveats to note when discussing TVB’s data. First, it does not provide a full list of all the nearly 5,000 streaming programs whose ratings it sampled. That seems like a huge number, but it’s important to remember the combined streaming libraries of the six streaming services sampled include tens of thousands of titles. Until the full list of shows sampled is released, it’s fair to question whether TVB-sampled streaming titles that would be likely to draw attention on a daily basis or not.

Second, TVB is a not-for-profit trade organization that represents America’s local broadcasting television industry. There’s absolutely no reason to suspect the authenticity of TVB’s numbers, but it is important to note that it represents the very broadcasters its numbers are touting over streaming services.

But even assuming that the streaming programs TVB sampled included popular titles that viewers turn on daily, the data does not indicate a massive problem for streamers. Nielsen’s monthly Gauge report shows that streaming consistently holds a bigger share of overall TV audiences than broadcast TV does. Nielsen’s Gauge includes ad-supported streaming platforms like Pluto TV and Tubi, which TVB’s sampling did not incorporate.

The real key for broadcasters, however, is that not many local TV stations are available as free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels yet. That means viewers don’t have too many options for seeing local content besides broadcast channels for the present, but that is changing. Just this week, The Roku Channel added 15 local ABC channels from various markets around the country. As viewers, and especially younger viewers find local channels more available on streaming platforms, their reliance on broadcast TV will likely wane.

TVB’s numbers may seem to indicate that broadcast TV is dominating streaming, but a closer look at the data shows that domination is far from complete. Local news may be able to perform a selection of streaming shows on a given day, but that doesn’t necessarily mean broadcast TV will rise up and slay the streaming beast to bring back the age of the rabbit-ears antenna.