Fox TV Loses To Univision 41 In NYC.

In an event that has made TV ratings history, WNYW Channel 5, the New York flagship station of the Fox Television Network, has lost the total day (sign-on to sign-off, 6 am to 2 am) ratings race to Spanish-language UHF-TV station Univision 41 (WXTV) here for the first time in the history of the overnight Nielsen Station Index (NSI) ratings.

Univision 41 scored a personal best 2.2 Nielsen Station Index total day rating and 5 share to beat the 2.0/5 NSI total day rating/share scored by WNYW Channel 5. It is the first time in history of Gotham’s total day ratings that Univision 41 has beaten WNYW Channel 5 and the first time in history that WNYW Channel 5, an English- language VHF TV station, has lost the total day ratings race to a either a UHF TV station or to a Spanish-language TV station. In fact, yesterday is only the sixth time in history that any VHF, English-language, commercial TV station has been beaten by a Spanish-language UHF TV station in New York’s total day ratings race. In each of the previous five occurrences, WWOR Channel 9, typically New York’s lowest-rated VHF commercial station, fell to Univision 41.

This giant footstep in the sands of ratings history is a mark of the growing significance of Hispanics as TV viewers in New York, the nation’s largest TV market by far, which comprises more than 7.3 million TV households. According to year 2000 census data, the New York television market is 18.6% Hispanic, up from 15.1 % Hispanic in 1990. That same census data reveals that there are more than 3,750,000 Hispanics in the New York market, a figure greater than the entire population of Chicago, America’s third largest city.

Thanks to the growing Hispanic population and to increasingly popular programs, Univision 41 is riding the crest of a wave in which it has surpassed CBS-owned WCBS-TV Channel 2 in several key time periods, including the 6 pm local news race in which it beat the CBS outlet by a huge margin yesterday for the 26th of 27 consecutive weekdays. Yesterday, Univision 41’s 6 pm “Noticias 41” with anchors Rafael Pineda and Denisse Oller scored 3.7/8 NSI to beat the 2.5/5 NSI scored by the 6 pm “CBS2 News” with anchors Ernie Anastos and Dana Tyler. Univision’s network news, “Noticiero Univision,” seen 6:30 pm to 7 pm scored 3.9/7 NSI yesterday locally to beat the 3.4/6 NSI scored on WCBS/2 by the “CBS Evening News” with Dan Rather. Univision 41’s local news programs also beat those on WCBS/2 yesterday from 6 am to 7 am (0.8/4 NSI for Univision 41 vs. 0.4/2 for WCBS/2) and from 11 pm to 11:30 pm, where “Noticias 41” with Pineda and Oller scored 3.5/7 NSI to beat the 2.1/4 scored by “CBS’s Nightcast” with Ernie Anastos and Angela Rae.

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