U.S. local TV news production continues to fall
By Keren Henderson, Tim Mirabito and Akshaya Chandrasekaran
Local television news production declined for a second consecutive year in 2025, according to the latest RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey.
The median amount of daily weekday news fell by a full hour to 5.5 hours, while weekend production also slipped modestly. Fox stations were a notable exception, reporting increased output, though researchers attribute that spike more to a lower response rate this year than to an actual rise in production.
The decline in daily news hours mirrors a broader multi-year trend visible in survey data stretching back to 2001, reinforcing last year's prediction that newsroom cutbacks would begin showing up in production totals. Despite the pullback in current production, news directors are notably more optimistic about the year ahead: 37.7% expect to increase local news output in 2026, up sharply from 15% a year ago, and none reported plans to decrease production. Researchers suggest this shift may reflect pressure on newsroom managers to expand content across platforms, including social media, rather than traditional broadcast hours alone.
The survey also found the number of stations originating local news continuing its multi-year slide, falling to 689 today from 711 three years ago. The number of stations rebroadcasting news from another newsroom also dropped, from 422 to 416, bringing the total number of stations airing local news of any kind to 1,105 — down 12 from last year. NBC, CBS and Univision affiliates saw the largest declines in stations producing original news, while ABC and Fox affiliates each gained one station.
This annual survey, conducted in the fourth quarter of 2025, drew responses from more than 1,100 television stations and nearly 600 radio stations, and is supported by the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and the Radio Television Digital News Association.