Media General Tops Olympics Ad Goal

The company's eight NBC affiliates generated $7.6 million in advertising revenue from the 2010 Winter Olympics, compared with its previously announced expectation of $7 million.
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TVNewsCheck,

Media General on Monday said its eight NBC-affiliated stations generated $7.6 million in advertising revenue from the 2010 Winter Olympics, compared with its previously announced expectation of $7 million.

Media General said that on the audience side, "the outstanding performance by Team USA in the 2010 Games, combined with the strength of Media General's local brands and their aggressive marketing commitments, drove very strong viewership for the Winter Olympics."

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Media General's five NBC stations in Nielsen-metered-markets, listed in the table below, were No. 1 in their respective markets during the games:

        Average household primetime viewing

Station/Market

Media General Households

Advantage over Closest Competitor

WFLA/Tampa

284,000

179,000

WNCN/Raleigh

128,000

56,000

WCMH/Columbus

165,000

98,000

WVTM/Birmingham

102,000

40,000

WJAR/Providence

105,000

71,000

TOTALS

784,000

444,000

Source: The Nielsen Co.

Primetime Winter Olympics coverage was the top-rated program on WFLA for the duration of the games. WJAR won 14 of 17 nights, and WCMH and WVTM each won 13 of 17 nights.  WCMH ranked seventh among all Nielsen-metered markets in the U.S. for overall average audience rating during the Games and was second for daytime viewing. 

"The outstanding efforts of our sales teams generated strong revenues from local and national advertisers from Winter Olympics packages," said Marshall N. Morton, president and chief executive officer.  "All of our stations did a terrific job capitalizing on the opportunity presented by airing the Games.   We were aggressive in promoting the unique value we bring to our local communities and their viewers, and we succeeded in retaining new viewers for our adjoining local newscasts," said Mr. Morton. 

"Strong sales efforts were also evident in the revenues generated from Super Bowl packages on our eight CBS stations in February - a total of $912,000.  In addition, Political spending is ramping up, and we expect the first quarter of 2010 to include $1.1 million of Political revenues. Media General's revenue performance since mid-2009 reflects the benefit of an overall transformation of our sales culture to one that provides our customers with multimedia solutions. All of our sellers are now selling all of our products to all of our customers. This new focus is enabling Media General to deliver revenue results that are at the top of our peer group," said Mr. Morton.

For the first two months of 2010, broadcast revenues increased 11.4 percent and Digital Media revenues increased 10 percent compared to last year.  Newspaper revenue declines moderated to 10.7 percent in the first two months of 2010.  Total Media General revenues declined 1.1 percent in the first two months of 2010.

 Media General Winter Olympics, Super Bowl and Political Revenues

 

Thirteen Weeks Ending

 

March 28, 2010

 

March 29, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Olympics

$7,614,000

 

$0

 

Super Bowl

912,000

 

3,244,000

*

Political

1,100,000

**

167,000

 

 

9,626,000

 

3,411,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

* 2009 Super Bowl was on NBC and played in Tampa, Fla., where Media General's WFLA-TV generated more than one-half of the company's 2009 Super Bowl revenues.

** Estimated (Jan./Feb. 2010 actual  Political revenues were $580,000)

Media General operates three additional NBC affiliates that are not in metered markets, including WSLS (67), Roanoke, Va.; WSAV (96), Savannah, Ga.; and WCBD (97), Charleston, S.C.

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