Swept Away

You can look now: February sweeps are finally over. Locally, last month's storms couldn't have come at a better time for ratings starved stations such as KABC, which actually got to use its heavily hyped "Doppler 7000+" radar. (What makes it "7000+" ?! Who knows.)

It was also a decent month for KCBS, which saw its 11 p.m. newscast ratings -- usually in the dumpster -- improve. Spanish-language KMEX, meanwhile, was tops as usual among younger demos at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Of course, sweeps should be obsolete here in Los Angeles, now that "local people meter" technology allows stations to find out their demographic ratings every day. Yet old habits die hard.

From my story in today's Variety:

L.A. stations haven't yet given up their sweeps fix, even though local people meters have technically made the tradition obsolete.

Thanks to local people meter data, stations in markets including L.A., New York and Boston now receive demographic information every day. That's a stark change from the past (and how it's still done in most local markets), where stations would have to wait for Nielsen to tabulate demos from household diaries taken during sweeps months.

Yet local stations this February still spent the month acting as they traditionally have during sweeps months --- promoting special reports and perhaps airing an extra car chase or two.

Arnie Kleiner, general manager at market leader (sign-on to sign-off) KABC, said stations still pay attention to sweeps because the networks, syndicators and media do.

"I think as long as the network is programming sweeps, we'll have to be talking about sweeps," Kleiner said. "But we'd love to even it out over 12 months. It would make life easier in some ways, and in some ways more difficult."

KCBS/KCAL news chief Nancy Bauer said she's conscious of the fact that her newscasts are now being graded year-round. But because station groups still look at sweeps numbers at a whole, particularly among network-owned outlets, Bauer said she still has to pay attention to sweeps numbers.

"We have to have a sweep plan," she said. "As good as you were in sweeps last year, you have to be that year-round now. And even better, now, in a sweeps period."

KCBS saw healthy gains for its 11 p.m. news, but the big performance among English-language stations this February came from KABC, which gave KNBC another run for the money at 11 p.m. and, thanks to a resurgent ABC, was tops among local households in prime -- up from fourth place last February.

In the Monday-Sunday late news race, KNBC narrowly took first among households, with a 5.8 rating and 13 share, followed by KABC (5.6/12), Univision-owned KMEX (5.0/11), KCBS (4.5/10), Fox-owned UPN outlet KCOP (1.1/2) and Telemundo outlet KVEA (1.0/2).

As usual, KMEX won the demo crown, both in adults 18-49 and 25-54. KNBC and KABC tied for second in adults 18-49, while KNBC was slightly ahead KABC among adults 25-54.

At 10 p.m., from Monday through Sunday Fox's KTTV won the household, 18-49 and 25-54 races, ahead of Tribune competitor KTLA.

In the competitive breakfastcast competishcompetish, KTLA's "Morning News" was tops with homes, followed by KABC's "Good Morning America." KTTV's "Good Day L.A.," KNBC's "Today Show" and KMEX's "Despierta America" tied for third.