By Robert C. Kenny | March 24, 2015
In communities across America, local TV broadcasters serve as trusted sources for breaking news, hard-hitting political and investigative stories, and emergency information in times of disaster and severe weather.
It’s the deep commitment of local broadcasters to investigating and uncovering societal wrongs and reporting on tragic and disastrous situations that has earned them the trust of millions of U.S. television viewers.
Local TV broadcasters across the country remain committed to delivering timely, accurate and reliable news and information to their viewers as they strive to meet the standard set decades ago by legendary network anchors. Local broadcast TV stations KUSA Denver, KXAN Austin, and WDSU New Orleans reached that pinnacle this year as recipients of the prestigious Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television for their compelling storytelling and accuracy in reporting. Their award-winning broadcasts ranged from spot on election coverage to exposing local political corruption, among other powerfully revealing news stories.
Make no mistake: broadcast television remains at the heart of journalism’s largest public square for informing viewers and continues to make immeasurable contributions to our nation’s strong democratic way of life.
In assessing the news reporting value of Broadcast TV in today’s society, independent studies show that it remains an important part of most Americans’ daily video consumption. On a daily basis, broadcast TV news continues to trump the largest cable networks in evening news viewership by a significant margin.
At present, nearly 60 million Americans primarily rely on free, over-the-air broadcast TV and more than 100 million paid television subscribers nationwide value access to local broadcast TV through their pay-TV service.
For those that have both pay-TV subscriptions and web-based, video-on-demand services, Horowitz Research reveals that the overwhelming majority of multi-platform viewers “are not ready to give up easy access to broadcast programming,” even with the growing emergence of several over-the-top (OTT) streaming services in the marketplace.
OTT services offer options to all consumers and cater to personal choice, but there are strong early indications in the marketplace that these stand-alone offerings are not going to simply replace Americans traditional television viewing habits.
Moreover, the latest data on millennial (consumers ages 18 to 34 years) viewing habits shows that nearly 30 percent of their viewing time is spent watching live TV and 17 percent streaming video, including broadcast TV content, over their mobile smart devices. Thus, this generation appears to use the broadband Internet as another video platform to watch their favorite broadcast content. If done right, OTT offerings will help expand consumers’ ability to access local news programming online.
Consumers clearly value broadcast TV in America irrespective of the technology or viewing platforms used to access it. Why? Because local and network TV broadcasters are reliable and trusted sources of political and investigative news reporting for viewers on what today remains journalism’s largest public square: television.
For the sake of our democracy and the preferences of U.S. consumers, it’s something Washington’s lawmakers and policymakers cannot simply dismiss or take for granted: the power, reach and influence of broadcast TV news.
In closing, it is only fitting to invoke the signature trademark of Cronkite, who, each night, signed off for CBS Evening News viewers with a simple, but remarkably powerful phrase, “And, that’s the way it is.”
Kenny is director of public affairs for TVfreedom.org, a coalition of local broadcasters, community advocates, network TV affiliate associations and others advocating for preserving the retransmission consent regime. He is a former press secretary at the FCC.
