last link on the left

Re-tooling, re-scheduling and re-branding has brought changes to the Edmonton TV news scene -- yet things seem to remain pretty much the same.

May 5th, 2006 brought the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement Spring 2006 book and good news for the major players in the capital city TV market.

CTV/CFRN maintained its lead but CITV/Global is narrowing the gap as announced by full page ads in local newspapers.

The ratings come after CFRN became CTV Edmonton, Global moving its National show to 5:30 (making room for an hour-long local newscast at 6:00), and the CBC placing its News at Six on equal footing with other local supper-hour newscasts.

While the "re-branding" hasn't hurt established stations, CKEM -- which morphed from A-Channel into Citytv late in 2004 -- saw its news audience evaporate.

TV Spring and Fall books are characterised by great differences in audience numbers, with the end of summer survey reflecting a larger total viewership.

CFRN's team of Carrie Doll and Daryl McIntyre maintained their first place showing holding onto 137,000 viewers -- more than their competition combined. However, their lead has been declining over the last two books, down from 152,000 in the Spring 2005 ratings period.

"CTV is thrilled and honoured to say we continue to be the No. 1 choice for news," CFRN's director of news and public affairs Steve Hogle announced. "We have more viewers than everyone else combined. And that's not only for our 6 p.m. flagship show, but every other newscast, as well."

Global News anchors Gord Steinke and Lynda Steele are no doubt proud of their station's continuing gain on the CTV affiliate. Up 14,000 viewers over Spring 2005, CITV's numbers show steady growth.

"Our numbers are outstanding," reflected Global news director and station manager Tim Spelliscy.

"We've still got some fine-tuning and tweaking to do to push us over the top at 6 o'clock, but we're clearly moving in the right direction."

Spelliscy expects to eclipse CFRN within the next two years, and the local newscast's lead-in show, Global National with Kevin Newman, is also up in viewership from 63,200 to 88,200.

Citytv's newscast numbers have nose-dived from 11,000 to 4,000 and now trail the field behind the CBC whose audience increased from 3,800 to 5,300.

Morning numbers show Citytv's Breakfast Television with just 2,600 viewers compared to CTV Canada AM with 9,500 and time-slot winner Global Morning News with 38,000.

television - edmonton ratings archives - spring 2006