Demonstrating how a majority of Americans get trusted information in a time of critical need, television ad sales advocacy group TVB has shared the results of a new survey that shows some 81% of respondents found that “local broadcast station news assets” were the leading sources of storm information during Hurricane Isaias.
That statement indicates that while tuning to an actual broadcast TV station may not have been seen, stories and content produced by these station’s news teams were.
Some 795 participants chimed in on the TVB study field by Dynata following the lone hurricane to impact the East Coast of the U.S. in 2026, impacting the Florida Panhandle and parts of Alabama and Georgia.
Among those surveyed, 55% reported losing electricity with 13% experiencing flooding or property damage and 9% forced to evacuate.
“The results of this survey underscored the value of trusted local broadcast news assets for updates before, during, and after a storm,” the TVB says.
How many respondents tuned to actual local broadcast television stations news? Some 64% did.
This was followed by phone emergency alerts (50%), network broadcast national news (46%), social media (44%), and local broadcast TV station news on a streaming service (42%), demonstrating the resilience of wireless and broadband networks during the hurricane.
Meanwhile, before the storm hit local broadcast station news assets were “most important” in making respondents aware of the hurricane, but placed No. 1 with just 42% of respondents indicating so.
The important takeaway: during the storm local broadcast station news assets led at 49%.
Individually, local broadcast TV station news was 33%, phone emergency alerts 14%, network broadcast national news 10% and local broadcast TV news on a streaming service 8%.
After the storm, local broadcast TV station news (28%) was ahead of social media (13%), network broadcast national news (10%), and phone emergency alerts (9%).
This demonstrates the fractured way individuals are receiving emergency information from broadcast television.
The study also examined mobile viewing, and TVB finds that during Hurricane Isaias, some 70% of respondents watched live local broadcast TV newscasts on a smartphone, PC, or tablet at some time during the emergency.
