Press Release Source: The Weather Channel
Expertise in Weather Coverage on The Weather Channel Outdraws All Other Networks During Hurricane Frances
Wednesday September 8, 4:27 pm ET
New Records in Audience and Weekly Rating Average for TWC
ATLANTA, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Proof that The Weather Channel has distinguished itself as the country's primary weather authority was verified Saturday as America's attention turned to Hurricane Frances, which produced the most widespread impacts of any hurricane to hit the state of Florida in decades. As the Hurricane Frances headed for the East Florida coast on Saturday,
The Weather Channel outperformed all other news and information cable networks with a 1.7 total day (5 a.m.-2 a.m.) HH rating representing over 1.5 million homes. Again on Sunday, The Weather Channel was the leader with a total day household rating of 1.6, compared to a 1.3 for Fox News, a 1.2 for CNN and 0.4 for MSNBC on Sunday. Ratings continued to spike on Labor Day with a 1.1 total day rating representing 933,000 households.
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The extensive coverage of Hurricane Frances earned the network the highest weekly average rating ever in its history for the week of August 30 to September 5.
On the Sunday morning following Frances' landfall, the TWC rating was twice that of Fox News Network in the 25-54 demo with a 1.0 rating for TWC compared to a 0.5 rating for Fox. Another distinction for TWC on Sunday was that
TWC's Weekend Planner (7a-11a) achieved a 2.4 rating, making it the third highest-rated program of the entire day across all cable programming networks.
Hurricane Frances also led to an increase in traffic to The Weather Channel Web site,
http://weather.com , beginning on Thursday, September 2 when the site set a record for daily video streams. On the weekend,
http://weather.com -- the most popular source of online weather, news and information according to Nielsen//NetRatings -- experienced pageview increases of 300 percent over the average weekend day results. The Weather Channel Companies also experienced increases in the many other options for obtaining weather information which includes the 24-hour, all-local weather network Weatherscan, newspaper syndication, the TWC radio network, broadband and interactive television applications with wireless weather products and customizable products such as Desktop Weather by The Weather Channel and Notify! by The Weather Channel, a personalized weather alert service.
The Weather Channel's 1.7 total day rating on Saturday tied with the record high rating of 1.7 achieved for coverage of Hurricane Floyd on September 14, 1999. The audience represented by the 1.7 rating for Frances results in a record-high audience delivery because TWC's universe has grown in the last five years. Therefore, The Weather Channel achieved a record high audience with Saturday's delivery of an average 1.5 million households. The top quarter hour for The Weather Channel during the weekend's coverage of Frances occurred at 9 a.m. on Sunday with a 3.1 peak household rating, delivering an average 2.7 million homes.
In acknowledging the outstanding work done to keep the public informed about the hurricane, Debora Wilson, president of The Weather Channel Companies, said, "The entire country -- in particular, millions of people in Florida and the Southeast -- counted on us to provide them with the information they needed to understand and cope with the effects of this incredible storm. At every turn, the TWC team excelled with outstanding reporting and insight mixed with the right balance of human empathy and concern," she noted.
According to a survey conducted on Saturday by SURVEYUSA, The Weather Channel ranked #1 as doing the best job of reporting on the hurricane. The network also ranked above all other broadcast and news-information cable networks in being the place where survey respondents first heard about Frances and the place they typically go for information about severe weather.
"Because of TWC's competitive advantage of having a staff of more than 100 professional meteorologists, including Dr. Steve Lyons, one of the nation's leading hurricane experts, we were able to provide viewers with information to help them prepare and stay safe far in advance of any other national television network. On Tuesday, we were the first national network to begin broadcasting live reports from the Bahamas on Hurricane Frances' track. Because our meteorologists saw the potential geographic scope of this event, we mobilized all of our resources in the field and in our studios to track the direction and intensity of Frances around the clock. Our goal, as always, was to keep viewers ahead of the storm," said Terry Connelly, senior vice president and general manager, The Weather Channel.
Even as Frances was downgraded to a tropical storm, TWC was providing viewers with information on the potential dangers of oncoming Hurricane Ivan.
Connie Malko, PR manager
The Weather Channel
770-226-2180
cmalko@weather.com
