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WestGroup and C3:
Television Stations See Ratings Increases

WestGroup and C3 (Convergent Communication Consultants) have an association that has contributed to the success of many local news stations around the country for more than 15 years. C3 is a full-service television consulting firm, and is the industry's leading specialist in multi-platform development, with an emphasis in television news. WestGroup partners with C3 to conduct both telephone and focus group studies. These studies are very comprehensive and typically allow us to put all of our technological, statistical and analytical powers to work.

A typical telephone study is 15 to 45 minutes in length, and involves a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions. The objective of these studies is to provide indepth insights into news viewers and their news viewing habits, preferences and opinions. In additional to our traditional crosstab analysis, the quantitative elements of these studies also include segmentation analysis, regression or driver analysis, and perceptual mapping. The qualitative elements involve in-depth open-ended questions that are analyzed much like focus group responses, except with the statistical reliability of a quantitative study.

C3 and its news clients are big fans of the Perception Analyzer™. PA™ technology is ideal for evaluating local newscasts, newscast personalities, and special news segments. It allows participants to record their reactions to continuous test material (e.g. segments of newscasts) using hand held dials, which have a wireless connection to a PC. Information is translated into data and graphic output, presented in real-time to both the group moderator and viewing client. C3 focus groups are used to evaluate newscast personalities, responses to changes in newscast formats, comparative insights about competitive stations in the market, and more in-depth insights into viewer preferences and opinions of special target audiences.

In the past year, the WG/C3 alliance has resulted in significant success in three markets in particular:

• In Los Angeles, the country's most competitive television market, KCOP-TV's 10 PM newscast is growing faster than its three competitors and is the only one to grow its audience in the November ratings period, which is considered the most important rating period of the year. WestGroup and C3 designed research protocols and worked with station leadership to identify attainable audience targets and develop a unique product that would attract those audiences. Ratings are up 30% in the past year.

• In Phoenix, KTVK has defied the trends of most stations that go from network affiliate to independent. The station has continued to protect and expand its dominance in the Phoenix market through a strong commitment to news and commissioning research by WestGroup and C3. Today, KTVK is widely regarded as one of the most successful independent television stations in the country. In fact, KTVK became the first independent station in the country to be #1, sign-on to signoff, in the November ratings period.

• Smaller market stations are benefiting from WestGroup and C3 research as well. In Youngstown, Ohio, television news has been dominated by the same station for 30 years. The challenge for WFMJ was to develop a strategy to increase its news audience share and topple the long-standing #1. C3 and WestGroup used customized research to map audience opportunities and then developed a step-by-step implementation and training program to leverage the internal talent of the stations staff to create a new market leader. In November, WFMJ was #1 in all news slots and showed dramatic demographic improvements.

Those are just three of the success stories. WestGroup and C3 continue to team up for research projects nationwide, helping television stations understand their audience's behaviors and attitudes and developing strategies to give them a competitive advantage.

JUNE 2001 Answers:
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