RTDNA Survey: Stations Growing Web Revenue

Mid-markets seem to get it, the big and small DMAs not so much

By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/23/2010 3:29:26 PM

Around 35% of the TV station websites are believed to be profitable this year, up 4.3% from the number last year, according to the "TV and Radio on the Web" survey released by RTDNA/Hofstra University. Only 14.4% of the nation's TV stations expected to lose money on the web this year.

News directors at 43% of stations conceded they did not know if their site is making money-suggesting that online is not yet a major business priority for a number of local news outlets.

Stations are expected to bag nearly $1.4 billion in local online revenue in 2010, a 21% improvement over 2009, according to a study released earlier this week by Borrell Associates and the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB). Stations rang up some $1.15 billion in interactive business last year, a 10% boost over the year before.

The RTDNA survey said TV sites are "maturing" as they emerge as legitimate breaking news outlets. Text, photos and video are essentially universal, while audio, live cameras, recorded newscasts and blogs are increasingly being utilized. Less popular are streaming audio, podcasts and assembling Web-only newscasts.

Nearly 36% of stations simulcast live newscasts on their websites. Just 2.7% produce web-only news programs.

"These numbers suggest that, more and more, stations are deciding that certain web elements aren't working that well for them--or aren't worth the effort--and they're either scaling them back or not bothering with them at all," said survey director Bob Papper, professor and chair of the Department of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations at Hofstra University.

The survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2009. Valid responses came from 1,355 of the 1,770 TV stations in America, a 77% response rate.

The mid-size markets feature the most profitable station websites. Markets 1-25 showed 34% of station sites being profitable, while markets 26-50 posted a 46% and markets 51-100 a 47%. When we reach markets 101-plus, the number slides back down to 27%.

The survey also found that 400 people lost their local news jobs in 2009-significantly less harsh than the 1,200 people who lost TV news jobs in 2008.