News Releases

RTDNA/Hofstra Survey Finds TV Business Evolving Quickly With Multi-Level Content Approach

For Immediate Release: April 29, 2010
Contact: Ryan Murphy, ryanm@rtdna.org

The evolution of strategies, priorities and news outlets in TV make it clear that the business models of today are a far cry from those the television industry employed just a few years ago, according to the latest installment of the RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey.

“Stations are increasingly providing content on multiple platforms,” said survey director Bob Papper, professor and chair of journalism at Hofstra University, “including radio, cable, other TV stations, multiple web sites, mobile and more.”

Nearly a third (32.7 percent) of the TV news directors surveyed said that they run local news on another local or nearby station. 

Additionally, the survey found at least twice as many news outlets putting content out on mobile devices over 2009.

RTDNA Members can access the full data from the survey by clicking here.

According to the survey, large-market news outlets tend to have a three-screen (on-air, online, mobile) approach to news with 68.8 percent of total respondents using that approach. Almost all stations ranked the order of importance as: on air, online, and then mobile. 

“Overall, more than 60 percent of stations in the survey said they're involved in some sort of cooperative news gathering or coverage agreement with another medium,” noted Papper. Interestingly, stations in smaller markets are a little less likely to be involved in cooperative agreements than stations in larger markets.  Stations with larger staffs, 31 people and greater, are also more likely to be involved in cooperative agreements than smaller operations.

Generally, the larger the staff, the more likely that the station is sharing information, a helicopter, pool video and other resources. Stations in the Northeast were a little less likely to be involved in sharing information but more likely to be involved in sharing a helicopter and pool video. “For stations not involved in cooperative arrangements,” noted Papper, “we asked whether they were planning or discussing one.  More than a quarter (28.6 percent) said yes.”

The survey found that more news outlets this year are running content like news, weather and sports on extra digital channels and several news directors not already involved with another digital channel expect to be in the next year.

About the Survey

The RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2009 among all 1,770 operating, non-satellite television stations and a random sample of 4,000 radio stations.  Valid responses came from 1,355 television stations (76.6 percent) and 203 radio news directors and general managers representing 301 radio stations.

Some data sets (e.g. the number of TV stations originating local news, getting it from others and women TV news directors) are based on a complete census and are not projected from a smaller sample.

The annual survey is conducted for RTDNA by Bob Papper, the Lawrence Stessin Distinguished Professor of Journalism and chair of the Department of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations at Hofstra University.  This research was supported by the School of Communication at Hofstra University and the Radio Television Digital News Association.

About RTDNA

RTDNA is the world's largest professional organization devoted exclusively to electronic journalism. RTDNA represents local and network news executives in broadcasting, cable and digital media in more than 20 countries.