Monday's Bits & Pieces for 2/2/09

Here's our update of what's happening around the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center, on NBC and around the television industry:

Happy Groundhog Day

For those of us who live in Cleveland, we are destined for another 6 weeks of winter, despite many folks prayers the worst is behind us and that sunny skies are ahead. Now for the news of the day...

"Chuck" in 3 D Monday Night

NBC will present a special 3D version of the hit series "Chuck" tonight at 8 p.m. on WKYC, followed by new episodes of "Heroes" and "Medium." You'll be looking at the future of television since most folks in the industry below the next logical step after high definition television will be 3D. Hopefully that transition will go smoother.

Romona in the Spotlight

Check out this month's copy of "Cleveland Magazine" where we find an article with our very own Romona Robinson and her thoughts about becoming our solo news anchor at 6 & 11 PM. We couldn't help but laugh at the photo, I mean cartoon, they used for the article. I've never seen Romona portrayed in quite that way before.

Also, speaking of Romona...we've been telling you the Plain Dealer's Julie Washington has been seen around the building and hanging out at some downtown eateries with Romona a couple of times now. Our sources tell us she is working on a big article about Romona coming out this month. Apparently she needs lot to time to pull it all together.

Your Regular Dose of the DTV Daily Dilemna

The mess with Congress trying to decide whether to delay the digital television transition continues in earnest. As of Monday afternoon, we hear the House is expected to wait until Wednesday before voting again on a revised proposal that past the Senate last Thursday Night. Can't we just get over this and move on? There are much bigger problems Congress should be worried about at the moment.

WKYC Tower Delay Update

WKYC's Director of Technology Mike Szabo tells us and the Plain Dealer construction on our new television tower continues to be delayed thanks to problems with our tower contractors working on another tower that hasn't been completed due to weather delays. Thus, WKYC will continue broadcasting on digital channel 2 until the tower is complete and on analog Channel 3 until the FCC chooses it's final shutdown date. We've received many letters about folks have trouble picking up our digital channel 2. Hang in there, the new tower will be worth the wait as we migrate to digital channel 17.

The Superbowl Sweeps Up for NBC and WKYC

Superbowl XLIII turned out to be quite an exciting matchup between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Although, we hate that the Steeler's win, we were all winners with "super" ratings.

Nielsen reports 89.2 million viewers tuned in during the broadcast between 7 & 10 p.m. ET. In prime time among households, the game averaged a 39.0 rating/59 share from 7-10 p.m. and a 37.9/57 from 7-10:30 p.m, according to preliminary Nielsen Media Research numbers. In the overnight metered markets, the game drew a 42.1/65, coming in 6% below last year's record-breaking telecast. Last night's match-up between the Steelers and the Cardinals also averaged a 33.3 rating/66 share among viewers 18-49 from 7-10 p.m. From 7-10:30 p.m., the Super Bowl averaged a 32.3/64 in the demographic and 85.9 million viewers. This second set of numbers takes into consideration the final half hour of the telecast, after the game had ended. Due to the nature of live programming, final numbers may change once time-zone adjusted information is released later today. Last year's Super Bowl was the most watched ever, with 97.5 million viewers. It ranked as the second most-watched telecast ever, coming in behind the series finale of "M*A*S*H," which drew 106 million.

Locally, WKYC rated in households with a 47.7 rating and 69.2 share. More impressive was men aged 25 to 54 with a 50.5 rating and 81.2 share.

NBC revealed its sold-out advertising inventory within Super Bowl XLIII broke all previous Super Bowl records totaling $206 million, though the total for the entire Super Sunday ticked up to $261 million. Spots within the Big Game went for $3 million apiece, while spots in the pregame went for $44,500 per spot during the first hour (noon-1p) and up to $1.6 million for those placed in the 15-minute window prior to kick-off. NBC tallied a total of 32 advertisers and their commercials can be viewed online via NBC.com, Hulu.com and Superbowl.com.

By the way, the "Doritos" ad took top honors among viewers favorites according to USA Today's annual Super Bowl Ad Meter competition. The low score was racked up by a spot for Vizio televisions.

"TiVo" Sees Higher Time Shifting During Sweeps Periods

According to Home Media Magizine.com, primetime television programs during network broadcast sweeps in May and October garnered the heaviest time shifting on digital video recorders seen so far, according to TiVo. 54% of primetime programming was timeshifted during those two months, compared to 40% in June, July and August.