Please note two corrections at the bottom of this item. Incorrect information is crossed out and new information is underlined.


KTVU Channel 2 is crowing about its ratings during the November sweeps when it was first for every weekday newscast in the 25-54 demographic except at 5 p.m., when KGO is tops, and 6 p.m., when KDTV Univision 14’s “Noticias 14” is No. 1. 

KTVU’s dominance isn’t news since it’s been at the top for decades. But among the four six stations airing local news at 11 p.m., KPIX CBS5 leads KGO ABC7 by just 1,258 viewers, while NBC Bay Area has fallen off the cliff.

If you define “late news” as including the “10 O’Clock News” on KTVU, then obviously Channel 2 is No. 1 with 88,479 viewers in the demo. At 11 p.m., KPIX draws 49,061 viewers, KGO 47,803, KDTV Univision 29,427, KNTV 28,112 and KRON 16,454 and KSTS Telemundo 3,098.

For some perspective, we pulled out the November 2007 25-54 numbers and spotted several trends:

• In the morning news battle, KTVU and KGO are gaining ground while KPIX and NBC are losing viewers. At 6 a.m., for instance, KTVU is up 43% from 37,000 viewers in 2007 to 53,000 last month. KGO is up 150% but with fewer viewers, going from 12,000 in 2007 to 30,000 last month. KPIX is down 24% and NBC plunged 40%. 

• The total number of 25-54 viewers watching the late news (10 p.m. on Channel 2 and 11 p.m. on the other four stations) only fell 3% during the three years, from 236,000 to 229,000. The decline isn’t a good trend for local broadcasters, but it’s not the doom-and-gloom story you usually see in the press about TV viewership either. 

• KGO has lost 62% of its 25-54 viewers at 6 p.m. over the past three years, going from 37,000 in 2007 to 14,000 last month. During the same period, KPIX’s 6 p.m. viewership in the demo went up 47%. 

• The big winner at 6 is KDTV Univision 14, which has led all stations for several years. KGO, KPIX and KNTV have each lost about 30% of their 25-54 viewers at 6 p.m. in the past three years. KRON lost 38% while KTVU is about the same.

• KTVU’s noon news has doubled its ratings in three years, from 12,000 to 24,000. 

• NBC Bay Area’s numbers over the past three years have drifted downward. At 11 p.m., they’re down 33% at 11 p.m., down 29% at 6 p.m., down 40% at 6 a.m. and down 14% at 5 a.m. However, NBC had no change at 5 p.m. or during “Today” from 7 to 9. 

• While KTVU still leads from 7 to 9 a.m., Channel 2 has lost ground to “Good Morning America” on Channel 7.

• Of the national network newscasts at 6:30 p.m., “Noticiero Univision” on Channel 14 is first with 30,799 viewers in the demo, followed by “ABC World News With Diane Sawyer” with 27,324, “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” with 17,025, “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” with 12,488 and “Noticiero Telemundo” with 5,503.

The figures here are from Nielsen data released by KTVU and KDTV.

Corrections:

1. Our analysis posted on Wednesday left out an important player, KDTV Univision 14, which leads the pack at 6 p.m. if you include both English and Spanish language channels. We only looked at the English language stations, although in the past we’ve noted the dominance of Channel 14 during this time period (here and here), but we should have this time as well. We wish to thank Melanie Wellbeloved, research and marketing director at Univision 14, for pointing out this error.

2. The top graphic (Nov. 2010) has also been corrected. It was sent out by KTVU. However, it transposed the 6 p.m. numbers for KGO and KPIX. The figures now are correct.

Below is a graphic showing more detailed Nieslen figures, comparing this November and last November.