Entertainment

Neilsen: Channel 2 Action News Dominated November

ATLANTA — 2013  In the first major book of the 2013-2014 television season, Channel 2 WSB-TV opened by continuing its overall dominance of television viewing in Atlanta. According to Nielsen, the station won every newscast, many by more audience than the other local newscasts combined. Channel 2 won 23 of 24 hours in November according to the Nielsen weekday average of Adults 25-54, taking first place in Daytime, prime access, prime time, early and late fringe.

Focusing on the total Atlanta local news audience, 57% of Adults 25-54 watched Channel 2 Action News, more than the other three local news stations combined.

“This doesn’t happen by accident,” said Tim McVay, Vice President and General Manager for Channel 2. “Viewers make their choice every minute of every day. We’re grateful that most Atlanta TV news viewers choose Channel 2 Action News. We certainly work hard to earn their choice.”

“This was a month of big breaking stories,” added News Director Mike Dreaden. “The Braves announcement they will move to Cobb County ranks as one of the most closely guarded deals of its size on record.  We had more than a dozen reporters digging into every aspect of the story and reporting it across all of our platforms.  We used Twitter, Facebook, wsbtv.com, email and text alerts and push notifications as part of our overarching platform distribution.

“Plus, it was a very key month for investigations. Our reports ranged from police profiling drivers of one particular car make to our discovery that recalled tires are still being sold.  These kind of stories keep our government officials in line and hold the powerful accountable.  Along the same lines, we uncovered more than 700 dog death reports filed with the FDA against a popular flea and heartworm medication.”

The new hit, “Marvel,” joined returning shows “Scandal,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Modern Family,” “20/20” and “Dancing with the Stars” to drive the buzz as WSB-TV and ABC dominated Prime Time.

Digital Suite Report

The station’s digital suite continued its year to year growth with total digital visitors up 24%, video plays up 85% and Video Live Streams up 376%.

Since December 1,2012, Channel 2’s Facebook “Likes” grew from 70,400 to 207,000, a growth of 194%. Its Twitter Followers grew from 39,600 to 62,203, up 57%.

“Our entire staff has focused on increasing our content production and engagement,” said McVay. “We’ve grown in our understanding of how to build fan engagement, starting with the type and timing of content, and how to use each other’s connection to spread the sharing.”

Contact

Steve Riley, Director of Creative Services

1601 West Peachtree St. NE

Atlanta, GA 30309

Office: 404-897-7447

About Channel 2 WSB-TV The ABC Affiliate is part of Cox Media Group and ranks as Atlanta's number one local television station. The station also operates its website, wsbtv.com, its mobile site, m.wsbtv.com, plus News, Weather and Traffic Apps, and airs MeTV on its digital sub-channel 2.2.

About Cox Media Group  Cox Media Group is an integrated broadcasting, publishing, direct marketing and digital media company that includes the national advertising rep firms of CoxReps.  Additionally, CMG owns Cox Target Media, which operates Valpak, one of North America's leading direct marketing companies, and Savings.com, a leading online source for savings.  The company's operations currently include 14 broadcast television stations and one local cable channel, 57 radio stations, eight daily newspapers and more than a dozen non-daily publications, and more than 100 digital services.  CMG currently operates in more than 20 media markets and reaches approximately 52 million Americans weekly, including more than 30 million TV viewers, more than 4 million print and online newspaper readers, and 14 million radio listeners.  For more information about Cox Media Group, please check us out online at www.coxmediagroup.com