KNWA Takes 10 p.m. Lead in Northwest
by March 13, 2006 12:00 am 78 views
After shifting its focus from the 11-county dominant market area to Washington and Benton counties in 2004, KNWA has taken the lead during the 10 p.m. television newscast for those two counties.
The Nielsen Media Research numbers from the November ratings period show KNWA, the NBC affiliate, had a household rating of 7.4 during the 10 p.m. timeslot. That’s one-tenth of a point higher than KHBS/KHOG, Channels 40/29. KNWA’s number was up from a 5 rating in the previous November.
KFSM, Channel 5, led in Northwest Arkansas during the 5 p.m. newscast for the most recent November, and KHOG led at 6 p.m.
KFSM led in all three evening news timeslots in the dominant market area. KFSM has traditionally led in the entire DMA, which includes Fort Smith and two counties in Oklahoma, while KHOG usually leads in Northwest Arkansas.
Nexstar Broadcasting Group of Irving, Texas, bought the NBC affiliate from JDG Television of Muskogee, Okla., in January 2005 for $17 million. Nexstar changed the station’s name from NBC 24/51 to KNWA.
Nexstar stopped subscribing to Nielsen’s ratings book for the area, which costs the stations about $100,000 per year and had been showing KNWA with anemic numbers. The local NBC station relaunched its newscasts in 2000 after an eight-year hiatus.
The Northwest Arkansas Business Journal omitted KNWA’s Nielsen numbers from an article in the Jan. 16 issue because we didn’t have a source for the NBC affiliate’s numbers at that time.
The Nielsen numbers used in this article were supplied by an independent source, not a television station. In the future, we will continue to use the independent source for the Nielsen numbers. The new Nielsen numbers in the accompanying chart vary slightly from those furnished by a television station and used in our Jan. 16 article. Neither the station nor the independent source explained why there might be a slight discrepancy in the numbers.
“Rating” is percentage of television households in the area. Nielsen rates the stations four times annually: February, May, July and November.
KFSM is owned by The New York Times Co. KHBS/KHOG is owned by Hearst-Argyle Television Inc.