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TV, Web news gain from election craze
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November 17, 2000: 8:17 a.m. ET
Vote debacle spurs news audience, but benefits seen fleeting
By Staff Writer Franklin Paul
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Most voters may find the everlasting U.S. presidential elections tiresome, but for TV and Web news outfits, and some local Florida businesses, all overflowing with new customers, it's as if the holidays arrived early.
Americans' thirst for daily updates to the contentious election-night stalemate has sparked a healthy increase in audience to news broadcast on the major networks and their competition on cable systems. Moreover, times are also good at their affiliated Web sites.
"Obviously it's been good for viewership of CNN, Fox News Network and MSNBC, as people sample the news," said Andrew Marcus, media analyst for Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. "In general its been good, people are tuning in to get more news and information, and watching more TV."
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In general, it's been good, people are tuning in to get more news and information, and watching more TV.
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Andrew Marcus, Media Analyst
Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. |
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Indeed, news-related viewership has risen at the networks in the past week, thanks to the standoff between Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore, whose race for the presidency has remained too close to call since election night.
Each of the tumultuous ten days since has had its share of critical developments, luring in viewers to what may be this year's most compelling story. The election, typically a one-night event now threatens to last for more than two weeks.
As a result, in the week of election night, more than 2 million more viewers on average watched NBC's Nightly News program than did the week before the election, according to Nielson Media Research. Evening news programs broadcast by NBC, a unit of General Electric (GE: Research, Estimates), CBS, a Viacom (VIA.B: Research, Estimates) unit, and Disney's (DIS: Research, Estimates) ABC, scored a 15 to 20 percent pop in audience on the week.
On cable, the audience was smaller but the growth rate was far more dramatic. CNN, which like CNNfn.com is a unit of Time Warner Inc. (TWX: Research, Estimates), pulled in an average of about 1.4 million more pairs of eyeballs during the election week. That's a leap of over 300 percent from the average viewership in the prior week.
Similarly, MSNBC added 700,000 viewers, according to Nielson, also a jump of over 300 percent.
News Web sites gain readers; Networks weigh costs
The hunger for information also spurred Web enthusiasts to flock to news sites, especially those affiliated with the TV networks.
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 WEB NEWS SITES NOV. 12
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Visitors five days after election
CNN.com -- 5.0 million
MSNBC.com -- 4.3 million
Yahoo News -- 3.3 million
source: Nielsen NetRatings
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According to Media Metrix, traffic on the Web sites of CNN, MSNBC and ABC News more than doubled from the Sunday before the vote, through election Tuesday. The numbers ballooned in the days following the election, and remained sharply higher by the following Saturday.
The burst of interest is a boon to these news site and networks, which gain viewers as a result of something as routine as an election, with a minimum of marketing expense.
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WEB NEWS SITES NOV. 5
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Visitors two days before election
MSNBC.com 2.5 million
Yahoo News 2.1 million
CNN.com 2.0 million
source: Nielsen NetRatings
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But experts say bulging ratings may not result in muscular quarterly results for the conglomerates that own and operate these companies. Although the networks scored higher ratings, those figures may not translate into more of the advertising that viewers see between recount results and statements from the candidates' legal teams.
"Higher ratings gives you the ability to set and charge higher rates, but I don't think that would change significantly as a result of this," explained Jay Cooper, senior partner at the law firm of Mannatt Phelps & Phillips.
Advertising rates are set months in advance the ads a viewer might watch tonight was sold by the network long ago based on the ratings a network believes it can deliver. Cooper notes that it is unlikely the news networks can recreate these kinds of ratings once the election bluster subsides.
"Simply because an extra ten million people are watching the news for these two weeks doesn't mean that they will in the next two weeks," he said. "It's not permanent; its only a spike. And they don't take spikes into consideration when they negotiate prices."
What's more, the networks must pay for the army of reporters, producers, camera operators and other equipment that are on the ground covering this story, which has hot points in Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Oregon and all across Florida.
Click here to read how this election may spur voting machine sales
"Sometimes this kind of story actually may hurt you -- it's costly election coverage," said Deutsche Banc's Andrew Marcus.
Representatives for both CNN and NBC told CNNfn that they have some 150 employees on the ground covering this story, with at least 100 NBC team members in place in Florida alone.
Neither company would comment on the cost of the elongated election coverage. But an industry source told CNNfn.com that NBC has since election night spent more than $1 million on its coverage.
Packed Florida Hotels, busy Palm Springs stores
A portion of Florida's hospitality economy is also smiling, thanks to Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush. Far from the Wall Street thunder of the multi-national media conglomerates, hotels, restaurants, and other comfort businesses in Tallahassee and Palm Beach, where much of the legal wrangling is taking place, are thriving.
 Hotels, stuffed with sundry media and political operatives, are booked to capacity, weeks in advance of the arrival of the "snowbirds," industry lingo for throngs of travelers escaping winter in the Northeastern U.S.
Legg Mason lodging industry analyst Rod Petrik said that he had heard many hotels in the Tallahassee were full to capacity, compared to an average 70 percent capacity at this time of year.
Dennis Grady, president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches, said the election controversy, and the visitors that came with it, have boosted the sun drenched town's already potent economy.
"Obviously we have experienced an influx of reporters, who have resulted in room nights in hotels, meal in restaurants, and additional positive economic impact in the hospitality industry in downtown West Palm Beach." 
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