Utah’s late, local TV news audience declines by almost half in 10 years

A decade ago, KSL-Ch. 5 averaged about 113,000 homes for its Monday-Friday late newscast, easily finishing first in the November 2007 sweeps.

In the November 2017 sweeps, KUTV-Ch. 2 edged out KSL in the household ratings at 10 p.m. — but the two stations averaged about 109,000 homes combined.

Here’s the difference between November sweeps approximate household results in 2007 and 2017:

(Channels 2, 4 and 5 air their late news at 10 p.m.; Ch. 13’s airs at 9 p.m. )

The number of households watching one of the late local newscasts fell 47 percent in 10 years, from a combined total of 308,000 homes to a combined total of 164,100 homes.

This is not a local phenomenon; it has happened all across the country. Not just because TV has changed, but because all media have changed. (Says someone who works at a newspaper.)

It’s not as if the local TV stations have done anything wrong. But, like all media, they face increased competition.

When the decline began, the thinking was that the proliferation of broadcast and cable channels meant more competition and fragmented the audience. But today, local TV news operates in an environment in which news is available 24 hours a day on TV and online.

By the way, household numbers are interesting, but they’re not used to sell advertising. And selling advertising is the whole reason that TV ratings exist.

In late news, the 18-49 and 25-54 ratings looked like this in November 2017:

So depending how you look at it, Ch. 5 was No. 1 at 10. Or Ch. 2 was No. 1.

Ch. 5 did not show the same strength in other newscasts throughout the day. Ch. 2 finished first or second in all the timeslots where it airs local news; Ch. 13 was strong throughout the day; and Ch. 4 continues to trail.

Here’s a sampling of a few timeslots, listed households/18-49/25-54. And you can see that better household numbers don’t necessarily translate into better demographic numbers.