When disaster strikes, Americans turn to local broadcasters for pertinent information.
And increasingly, they turn to a station’s website for that same info – according to NAB, local TV traffic multiplied during Sandy’s heights.
Two organizations, Worldnow and Internet Broadcasting, told the National Association of Broadcasters that local television stations in the storm’s path recorded 10.4M unique visitors between 10/28 and 10/30. Page views were up by a factor of between 2.5 and 3.5 times that of a normal weekday.
“We know from past history that viewers regard local TV stations as an indispensable resource for breaking news and emergency weather information,” said NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith. “This data surrounding Hurricane Sandy suggests that local TV station websites have become an equally important source of information. It’s a broadcast-broadband world, with millions of people either tuning in to local television stations or accessing similar ‘need-to-know’ information on TV stations’ websites in lifeline situations.”
The Worldnow study included stations in 15 affected states, and Internet Broadcasting’s numbers included 10 such states.
RBR-TVBR observation: If people are getting used to using television station websites, it means they have value, and that means that the value can be sold, and that means that there is no reason that broadcasters can not be prime participants in the migration of media money to digital platforms. If digital is where the money is going to be, be there and get some!
In other words, don’t wait for a disaster to create a compelling website. Make it a destination for your loyal audience 24/7/365.
