About 120,000 people will descend on Miami for Super Bowl XLIV. It’s the 10th time the iconic sports event has been played here, more than any other city. Just in time for the Super Bowl and yesterday’s Pro Bowl, Dolphin Stadium, located in Miami-Dade County, was renamed Sun Life Stadium, its seventh moniker since opening in 1987.
The estimated extra $350 million generated by a week of sports events will be a welcome change to a market ravaged by the auto advertiser dropoff and a plunge in real estate values. Unemployment locally hit 10.6 percent in December. The Miami TV market lost 8,830 TV households, a 0.6 percent decrease that dropped it one place in rank to No. 17.
In a market where nearly half the population is Hispanic, the two main Spanish-language outlets—WSCV, NBC Universal’s owned-and-operated Telemundo station, and WLTV, Univision’s O&O—top the ratings in late news. For eight of the 10 sweeps periods in 2009, WSCV was No. 1 in late news among adults 18-34, 25-54 and 18-49, while WLTV was No. 2.
WPLG, Post-Newsweek’s ABC affiliate, ranked No. 3. In early news at 6 p.m. for November, WSCV was tied for first place with WSVN, Sunbeam Television’s Fox affiliate, among adults 18-34 and 18-49; WSVN ranked No. 1 among adults 25-54. WLTV was No. 3.
Strong competitors in early and late newscasts, the Spanish-language outlets have yet to gain ratings ground in other news dayparts when WSVN is the station to beat. WFOR, CBS Television’s O&O, ranks a strong No. 2 in the early news. WFOR shares a news chopper with WPLG.
Since 2008, WSFL-TV, The CW’s Tribune outlet, has shared a newsroom with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale, as well as a common Web site, southflorida.sun-sentinel.com. The two outlets jointly produce WSFL’s sole local newscast, a 5-9 a.m. morning show launched last April.
The radio market is difficult to gauge since Arbitron commercialized the portable people meter ratings service in July. Univision, which asserts that Arbitron undercounts minority audiences, has refused to encode its four stations (WAMR-FM, WRTO-FM, WAQI-AM and WQBA-AM), accounting for almost 20 percent of the radio audience.
Even without Univision stations counted, two Spanish-language radio stations make the top five. WMGE-FM, Clear Channel’s Spanish Contemporary station, and WCMQ-FM, Spanish Broadcasting System’s Spanish Oldies, are ranked No. 4 and 5, respectively. Rounding out the top three are WLYF-FM, Lincoln Financial Media’s Adult Contemporary station, followed by Cox Radio’s Urban AC WHQT-FM and Urban WEDR-FM.
Despite a 23 percent daily circulation decline to 181,090 for the six months ending Sept. 30, The Sun-Sentinel managed to edge out The Miami Herald, which dropped 23 percent to 162,260, as the state’s second largest daily. McClatchy, The Herald’s owner, recently said it would eliminate 24 positions on top of 175 positions cut last year. In November, the paper announced plans to launch hyperlocal Web sites for five communities, the beginning of a larger Community News Network.
In outdoor, Clear Channel has eight digital billboards, and CBS Outdoor has five. Both companies also offer static bulletin and poster coverage. Since 2003, Cemusa has installed more than 1,000 bus shelters throughout Miami-Dade. In Miami, Fuel Outdoor has bulletins and wallscapes as well as the bus shelter franchise in the city of Miami. Signal Outdoor also has a presence in the market. JCDecaux manages airport advertising.
Vital Stats
TV DMA Rank: 17
Population 2-plus: 4,104,449
TV Households: 1,538,090
TV Stations (Net/Ind/Multicast/Public): 7/15/3/2
Wired Cable Households: 1,023,470
Radio Metro Rank: 12
Population 6-plus: 3,910,000
Radio Stations (rated): 44
Newspapers (daily/weekly): 6/53
