Spanish Language TV Viewing Up In NYC.

Spanish-language TV viewing has bucked what may be the most significant trend revealed by the just completed February sweeps period (Feb. 1 – 28, 2001) during which audiences nationwide are measured in order to set advertising rates for more than 200 US TV markets.

An analysis of New York area Nielsen Station Index (NSI) household TV ratings for the February 2001 sweeps period compared with TV ratings for the corresponding period in year 2000 reveals that viewing of New York’s six English-language VHF commercial TV stations is down 11% on a total day, year-to-year basis.

New York area Spanish-language broadcast TV viewing, on the other hand, is up by a whopping 60% from February 2000 levels.

Consider the case of Spanish-language New York market leader Univision 41 (WXTV). Unlike New York’s English language commercial stations, Univision 41 viewing is up by 25% from its already impressive February 2000 levels — from a 1.2 NSI rating sign-on to sign-off (7 days a week, 6 am to 2 am) to 1.5.

In addition, each of Univision 41’s key weekday newscasts reports audience growth since February 2000 — something none of the major English-language commercial stations can claim. Univision 41’s wakeup newscast, “Noticias 41 al Despertar,” seen weekdays from 6 am to 7 am scored a NSI average rating/share of 0.6/3 during the February 2001 sweep, a 200% increase from its February 2000 score of 0.2/1.

“Despierta America,” the Univision network breakfast newscast, scored 0.8/3 in New York on WXTV, a 33% increase over the prior year score of 0.6/2.

The 6 pm and 11 pm editions of “Noticias 41,” WXTV’s signature local newscast, are also up significantly in household rating since February 2000. The 6 pm “Noticias 41” with anchors Rafael Pineda and Denisse Oller scored 2.2/4 in February 2001, an increase of 22% over last year’s 1.8/3, while the 11 pm “Noticias 41” shot up 69% since February 2000 — from 1.3/2 up to 2.2/4 with the same anchor team as the 6 pm news.

Meanwhile, more New York area households are getting their 6:30 pm network news in Spanish nowadays. “Noticiero Univision,” which is seen on WXTV opposite the evening newscasts of CBS, ABC, and NBC, jumped 21% in audience from 2.3/4 from 1.9/3 last year.

Each New York Nielsen Station Index rating point represents 69,356.1 TV households.

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