KETV Makes Big Climb In Ratings

If there is a secret to the success of KETV’s news operation, it can be traced to the station’s philosophy of maintaining consistency.

“We place the same level of focus, attention and emphasis on (every ratings period),” said KETV general manager Joel Vilmenay.

And before Vilmenay could say anything more, News Director Rose Ann Shannon interrupted, saying, “We deliver every day because viewers don’t make a decision on April 29 or whatever the first day of the book is to start watching us. Every (book) is important, but every day is important, too.”

So while KETV (Cox Channel 9) might not be celebrating the results of the February ratings, it does have reason to break out some bubbly.

According to Nielsen Market Research ratings measured Feb. 2 to March 1, KETV had the most viewership at 5 a.m., 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., is locked in a dead heat with WOWT (Cox Channel 8) at 6 p.m. and is close behind at 10.

KETV is not only No. 1 in the morning newscast race, it is posting dominant numbers. According to Nielsen, at 5 a.m., KETV has 9,438 viewers to WOWT’s 3,146. At 6 a.m., KETV attracts as big a viewing audience (22,022) as KMTV gets for its 10 p.m. newscast. (WOWT has 15,730 viewers at 6 a.m.)

KETV’s lead over WOWT at 5 p.m. is two ratings points, a virtual reversal from what the ratings looked like last November. At 6 p.m., KETV gained nearly two ratings points from November to match WOWT’s total viewership in the same time period.

Ratings points measure the percentage of all households viewing a program. In February, each ratings point equaled 3,146 viewers.

“We are all very pleased with the results,” Vilmenay said. “We just continue to focus on our core news areas. In early morning, we knew that 5 to 7 a.m. would not be impacted tremendously by the Olympics, nor would our early evening news. With late news, we knew we would run up against the Oympics, so we just continued to provide our coverage as we normally do.”

KETV’s reputation of being the breaking news leader faced a new challenge in February when KMTV (Cox Channel 5) relaunched its newscasts the day before the ratings period as “Action 3 News.” The CBS affiliate promotes itself as being first with breaking news and “First Warning Weather.” The change boosted KMTV’s 10 p.m. rating by three points.

But Vilmenay said it made little difference.

“I don’t think we’re trying to get into a counter-position to everyone,” he said. “We’re just abouut providing what our brand says to the viewer and that is complete coverage in every sense. That includes breaking news, severe weather coverage, news of the day and local news in every way.”

From an evening news standpoint, very little changed at KETV between November and February. The main anchor team of Julie Cornell and Rob McCartney and chief meteorologist Bill Randby and sports director Jon Schuetz are in their 10th year together.

“We believe they’re comfortably in place,” Vilmenay said, declining to elaborate on where things stand contract-wise for each member of the team.

KETV did add a well-branded “I-Team” to its newscast offering before the February book. The addition has proved its worth, Shannon said.

“We’ve had a strong investigative effort for a long time and I think viewers have viewed us as the station to go for investigations,” Shannon said. “We put a lot of emphasis on that. So this is just an extension of the brand, really. It’s increasing our investigative presence.

“That being said, I think it’s getting a lot of traction. Viewers are bonding to it. They’re calling in with story ideas. So it’s making for very interesting television.”

Yet to be seen is the impact the addition of KETV’s weekend morning newscasts at 7 and 11 a.m. From 8 to 8:30 a.m., KETV competes directly with WOWT, which has offered an 8 to 9 a.m. newscast for several years.

KETV’s website, KETV.com, is also showing its strength. According to Nielsen Media Research/NetRatings for the month of March, more people visited KETV.com than any other Omaha news website.

John Livingston, KETV’s creative services director, said the website strives to meet what viewers expect from an online news site.

“One of the things we’ve done in the past year is put live, streaming doppler on the site,” Livingston said. “Plus, we continue to stream important live, breaking news events.”

Online viewers can expect to see KETV.com continue to evolve in the coming months, he said.

“We’re just going to continue to make KETV on the web what it is on the air, which is more complete coverage,” Livingston said. “Any way we can do that we’ll make the investment to try and lead the way.”

It is also not out of the question to see further expansion of KETV’s morning newscast, either, Vilmenay said. Currently, KETV utilizes five people on-air (anchors Elictia Hammond and John Oakey, meteorologist Andrea Bredow, live reporter Mike’l Severe and traffic reporter Jana Murrell) while WOWT has three and KMTV two.

“We’re going to continue to respond to the viewers’ needs,” Vilmenay said. “We’re investing in research to get a better understanding of what the viewers want. In that sense, we’ll continue to enhance what we do to meet their needs.”