Target Competitors’ Viewers Watching Your Station

Most TV stations rely on their own on-air to market and promote their news.

If you have air time in the news and entertainment programming from your network, you’re reaching a large audience. The broadcast networks, CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox were the most-watched networks by total viewers in 2020, according to Variety.

What if you knew and could target the exact times where your competitors’ news viewers were watching your station?

Michael Stewart, who has been a creative services director for stations in Kansas City and San Diego says you can use a tool most stations have at their disposal but is sadly underutilized — Nielsen’s Promo Optimizer.

“Nielsen’s Promotion Optimizer is a great snapshot of where our competitors are viewing my station’s air,” Stewart says, “and showing where I can maximize my promo avails to reach my audience across 24 hours. I can be efficient in knowing where and when our competitor’s viewers are watching our station throughout the day. I can then in turn give up those avail opportunities to our sales team, and they can give me more time within those intervals where I know our competitor’s viewers will be watching. It’s an amazing tool, especially with the ability to break things down by specific demos.”

Paul Lefort, Nielsen’s SVP, sales director and local media client services, says: “Targeting your broadcast competitor’s viewers is a tried and true benefit of Nielsen’s Promo Optimizer. However, given the exponential rise in streaming and the ever more competitive landscape for local broadcasters, Promo Optimizer reports can also be used to target streaming audiences and remind them of your station’s up-to-the-minute coverage of local breaking news.”

Stewart also says that it’s all about talking to the viewers he wants, and knowing exactly when the most optimal times are to do that.

“If I’m targeting a specific newscast, I can punch in that time in the optimizer, and see where viewers of another station’s newscast are watching,” says Stewart.

“For example, if I want to reach my competitor’s 10 p.m viewers, I can use the promo optimizer to find those viewers, and it will generate a report showing me where they are watching, which will show me where to place promos for my station’s 10 p.m. newscast.”

Click here to read Stewart’s article, Maximize Your Own Air to Directly Target Your Competition.

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