The February 2010 sweeps were supposed to be won by NBC, which paid $820 million for the broadcast rights (but managed to lose $250 million on the deal). Instead, KTVU and KPIX came out of the sweeps period smiling. Each station issued a press release touting how well they did in February. Here’s KPIX’s statement:

In the face of Olympic competition, CBS 5 Eyewitness News ratings soar and are up in the Adult 25-54 demo (Monday-Friday) year to year in four out of six newscasts: 5 a.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. … “This further validates a trend seen in the last several months and it is even more encouraging considering the challenging environment in February” said Ron Longinotti, president and general manager of CBS 5/The CW 44 Cable 12. Additionally, the Eyewitness News at Noon with anchors Juliette Goodrich and weather anchor Tracy Humphrey is number one in household ratings for the sweep period.[KPIX 1.7, KTVU 1.6] A25-54 ratings Monday-Friday percentage increase year to year:
5 a.m. — up 67% 5 p.m. — up 43% 6 p.m. — up 29% 11 p.m. — up 7%

In a 14-page press release, KTVU reported that it continued to hold on to the first-place position in the late news race despite NBC11’s Olympic surge. Here is one of the pages KTVU put out regarding its February ratings:

Channel 2 reports it had double the audience of its competitors in the morning. Of course channels 5, 7 and 11 are handicapped by the fact that they must carry their network’s morning show from 7 to 9, which is three hours old and produced in New York.

KTUV is also crowing about its Internet/Mobile ratings in February. It reports its Web site had 5.4 million page views in February, and that its top story of the month (the East Palo Alto plane crash) had 84,000 page views. KTVU.com’s Chinese New Year slide show drew 43,000 page views. The five-day forecast attraced 463,000 page views during the month.

The Press Club is well aware that stations dice and slice the ratings to make themselves look good. So if other stations have announcements about how they did in February, please forward them to us.