The Power of Local Linear TV, as Evidenced By its Athleticism

In the realm of video media, few avenues of content deliver as reliably as sport on linear TV, both in actual ratings as well as audience engagement. The sports fan is about as brand loyal as one will find anywhere in the entertainment universe — devoted to a team or teams, ready to watch when times are good or bad. And the appeal goes beyond professional sports leagues — colleges and even high school and middle school teams attract a rabid fan base between parents egging on their children to college graduates demonstrating fealty to their alma mater.

Advertisers line up near and far to be associated with such devoted fan bases, particularly at a time when sports can prove it’s largely DVR-proof (little to no ad-skipping) and when it still delivers the increasingly elusive male adult demographic in quantities not often found across the TV landscape.

That said, as we witnessed with Super Bowl LV in early February, in which Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who literally had home field advantage) trounced the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9, even the biggest sporting events can suffer the occasional fumble. National ratings for the biggest sporting event of the year were still impressive at 38.3 (Live +1 day). But here’s the secret: Locally, the telecast delivered sensational numbers, not only in Tampa Bay (52.4 rating) and Kansas City (59.9 rating), but even Boston at a 57.8 rating. Think of the payoff for any smart local advertiser that took advantage of such gigantic audiences.

Some advertising categories are taking advantage of the power of local TV to reach millions through TV sports, the most notable being online sports betting — a relatively new pool of dollars. Advertisers in this hot new category are turning to local TV for its geographic targeting, trustworthiness, and its ability to build reach quickly and influence the sports bettors they’re targeting. According to a 2021 survey fielded by Heart + Mind Strategies, five times as many bettors cited television over radio or social media as the most important influence for their awareness of sports betting options. Ninety-two percent agreed that seeing a sports betting website or casino advertised on broadcast TV gave them assurance of its trustworthiness.

Given the falloff of in-person attendance at casinos as a result of social distancing needs in the time of COVID, local TV has been a veritable lifesaver to that industry’s conversion to an online-first business platform. To me, the irony is not lost that TV represents one of the best ways for digital businesses to draw attention to themselves, as the online betting world has discovered.

Though advertisers such as DraftKings or FanDuel have hit a veritable audience jackpot in local TV, they aren’t the only advertisers delivering results. During Super Bowl LV, a bevy of alcohol brands such as Stella Artois, Cutwater and Cointreau advertised regionally across local TV markets and Reddit’s five-second ad in the top 7 markets went viral — it was the most searched Super Bowl ad online, resulting in coverage by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, among others.

Beyond the Super Bowl, there’s an abundance of sports on broadcast TV to choose from, with NBC stations carrying NHL throughout its season, CBS owning the broadcast rights to NCAA’s March Madness and, of course, regular season and playoff NFL games.

Lest we forget, there will be pent-up demand for the Olympics. The 2020 Summer Olympics were postponed due to the COVID crisis and will take place this coming summer in Tokyo, followed shortly thereafter by the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Both will run on numerous NBC platforms — and it’s never happened before that both sets of games should run so close to each other. This could be a one-two punch for savvy marketers with key local strategies.

In other words, the opportunities for marketers to secure cost-effective access to sports viewers on local TV will only continue to grow. And not only through sports, but with all manner of entertainment. Look no further than CBS’s ratings for Oprah Winfrey’s exclusive interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which drew an eye-popping 17 million viewers. But, the real story is local. The San Francisco market had a 20.5 rating, while the New York market had a 20.3 (both Live + 1 day), nearly double the national rating (12.5).

Headlines may scream about the advent of streaming TV and OTT, but the fact remains that linear television, and specifically local broadcast TV, deliver like no other medium, and will continue to for a long time to come.

Steve Lanzano is president and CEO of TVB, a not-for-profit trade association representing America’s local broadcast television industry.