Another Snow Storm Brings in Strong Ratings in Boston

It's been one of the snowiest winters in Boston history, and that is helping news ratings.

Currently in the February sweeps period, the news stations in Boston are seeing an increase in viewership as people are stuck inside due to the unsafe road conditions and public transit interruptions.

With 16 consecutive hours of coverage from 4am-8pm, WFXT-TV FOX 25 stayed on the air all day, providing wall-to-wall coverage of the storm in place of their scheduled syndicated programming.

The other 3 stations had extended coverage as well. WCVB started its news a half hour early at 4am, and remained on the air until 10am. WBZ also started at 4am, and WHDH started Today in New England a half hour early at 4:30am.

WCVB continued with an hour-long newscast at noon, and started evening coverage an hour earlier at 4pm.

While WCVB handily won overall viewers (P2+,) they also dominated in the adults 25-54 advertiser friendly demographic.

"Our strong ratings show that when a powerful storm grips the region and makes history, viewers turn to WCVB for all the news and information they need to weather the storm, whether on-air or on their mobile devices," said Bill Fine, WCVB President and General Manager.

During the daytime hours, while they were the only station in continuous storm coverage, FOX 25 took turns as the #1 or #2 most watched station among A25-54 viewers. FOX 25 peaked at a 2.7 rating at 1pm, which was the most watched quarter hour on any station all afternoon until all stations returned with coverage at 4pm, according to FOX 25.

While WCVB won from 5pm-6:30pm in total viewers and in the A25-54 demo, FOX 25 News at 6pm achieved a single-day station record rating, despite their third place finish.

At 10pm, FOX 25 achieved a 3.9 rating in the A25-54 demo, which was higher then any 11pm newscast. In the 11pm time period, WCVB was again the winner in P2+ by a large margin, and also in the A15-54 demo besting FOX 25 by 5%.

Ratings (from WCVB):

5-7AM Persons 2+
WCVB (110,100) | WBZ (64,500) | WHDH (53,800) | WFXT (51,900)
5-7AM Adults 25-54
WCVB (51,600) | WHDH (31,100) | WFXT (30,900) | WBZ (26,900).

Noon with Persons 2+
"WCVB garnered a 23% advantage over its nearest competitor, WHDH and delivered more than double WBZ’s
audience and triple WFXT’s 12N-1P weather coverage."

5-6:30PM Persons 2+
"WCVB was +85% over WHDH, +157% over WBZ and +428% over WFXT."
5-6:30PM Adults 25-54
"WCVB was +50% over WHDH, +178% over WBZ and +205% over WFXT."

11PM-11:30PM Persons 2+
"WCVB (204,300) was +87% over WFXT, +89% over WBZ and +108% over WHDH"
11PM-11:30PM Adults 25-54
"WCVB was +5% over WFXT, +26% over WHDH and a huge +343% over WBZ."

*Source: NSI Overnight Prelim 2-9-15-LS

You can view the original WCVB press release here.