Univision 41 Soars In Gotham.

With a 62% gain in total viewership according to Nielsen Station Index (NSI) average household ratings for the just completed May 2002 sweep, Spanish-language Univision 41 (WXTV) boasts the greatest year-to-year audience growth of any New York TV station both in absolute terms and percentage terms compared to its performance in the same period one year ago.

In the total day, or sign-on to sign-off measure of viewing, the broadest measure used in TV, Univision 41’s NSI rating/share has grown from 1.3/3 to 2.1/5. That’s a whopping 62% gain. The May 2002 sweep (April 25 to May 22, 2002) is one of four, four week periods each year in which the audiences of TV stations nationwide are measured to set advertising rates.

Univision 41 has beaten Fox-owned WWOR/9, one of Gotham’s six major, English-language commercial VHF-TV stations, sign-on to sign-off, a first for a May sweep. WWOR/9 scores 1.7/4, a drop of 19% from May 2001’s 2.1/5, marking a new, sweeps sign-on to sign-off low for any of New York’s six major English-language stations.

Univision 41 is also Gotham’s only TV station to grow audience for all its key local and network news programs, scoring double digit percentage gains in every key weekday news time period compared to one year ago.

Here are the facts:
* At 6 am Univision 41’s “Noticias 41 al Despertar” (Channel 41 News at Dawn) is up 200% to 1.2/5 from 0.4/2 NSI.

* At 7 am “Despierta America” (Wake Up, America) is up 30% to 1.3/4 from 1.0/3.

* The 5 pm to 6 pm newsmagazine “Primer Impacto” is up 80% to 2.7/6 from 1.5/4. It takes third place in Gotham’s 5 pm news race from WCBS/2. The latter scores 2.5/5 NSI.

* Univision 41’s 6 pm local news, “Noticias 41” with anchors Rafael Pineda and Denisse Oller, is up 52% to 3.2/6 NSI from 2.1/5 in a tie for third place with WCBS/2.

* Univision’s 6:30 pm network news, “Noticiero Univision,” is up 30% in New York to 3.0/6 NSI from 2.3/5.

* Univision 41’s 11 pm local news, “Noticias 41” with anchors Pineda and Oller, is up 81% to 3.8/6 NSI from 2.1/4, only one tenth of a rating point behind the competing local news on WCBS/2. The latter, at 3.9/7 NSI, set a record for the lowest May sweep score of any of the New York’s three, English-language 11 pm TV news programs.

Each New York Nielsen Station Index rating point represents 73,010.6 TV households.