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State of the Screens

Charter Spectrum plans to report local TV news, 24 hours a day, in Los Angeles

By August 28, 2018No Comments

Charter Spectrum is launching a 24/7 news network for its pay-TV customers similar to NY1 in New York.

Charter plans to hire 125 employees to staff the network.

Say what? They plan to fill 24 hours with local news that is not dominated by car chases…

TV homes in Los Angeles:
1) Charter Spectrum — 1.5M (27%)
2) Other — 4.0M (73%)

Flashback #1: Pew Research Center: Local TV News Fact Sheet

Station Revenue by year (TV only):
1) 2010 — $19.4B
2) 2011 — $17.9B
3) 2012 — $20.3B
4) 2013 — $18.4B
5) 2014 — $20.0B
6) 2015 — $18.5B
7) 2016 — $20.6B
8) 2017 — $19.8B*
9) 2018 — $21.1B*

Air time dedicated to news continues to grow (hours per day):
1) 2003–3.7
2) 2008–4.6
3) 2013–5.3
4) 2016–5.7 (↑ 54% since 2003)

Flashback #2: Cable News Wars: Inside the Unprecedented Battle for Viewers in Trump Era

Viewership growth for CNN/FNC/MSNBC in 2016:
1) Primetime — ↑ 55%
2) Daytime — ↑ 36%

Fox News gets 2X the affiliate fees compared to CNN/MSNBC.

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.