Summary of Key Findings

Eight years ago, Insite developed the first PC-based "voice capture" interviewing system. This unique approach to survey research uses digital audio to record not only what respondents have to say, but how they say it.

Over the years, Insite has analyzed more than 250,000 recorded comments from local news viewers in more than 60 U.S. television markets talking about what they like, what they don't like, and why. While most viewers still value the time they spend watching local news, many also have a variety of specific complaints. Surveys conducted for our clients are highly confidential and market-specific; however, these complaints are so remarkably consistent that we decided to use them as the basis for this year's American Voice Poll.

Unfortunately, most stations have never adequately addressed these concerns, and many viewers now feel that their complaints have been ignored. If anything, widespread industry changes and practices have only made matters worse — viewer dissatisfaction is now so strong that it's definitely impacting on audience behavior:

Avoidance of local news has doubled in the past ten years. 10% of those surveyed no longer watch any local newscasts; in some markets, the figure is as high as 33% for the primary 5, 6, and 10/11pm shows.
Of those who do watch local news, more than half those surveyed no longer care which station they watch. In fact, the percentage of local news "discriminators" has declined steadily for the past three years.
Station satisfaction and loyalty scores continue to drop right along with viewer discrimination, yet many viewers no longer bother searching for alternatives. In many markets, up to half those surveyed are now resigned to watching just one station for local news.

Voice-capture lets us hear the true nature and extent of these concerns. Complaints over repetition, for example, are the direct result of so many stations adding local news and expanding into new time periods. With all the increased competition, some stations are trying to manipulate the audience with sensational coverage or misleading promotion, alienating many of the viewers they're trying to attract. Competition also leads many stations into copycat tactics which not only perpetuate many of these problems, they also result in newscasts which look so much alike that the audience can no longer tell the difference.

It's significant whenever 10% of the population shares any common complaint, so the results of this survey are quite alarming:

More than half those surveyed feel that most stations spend too much time covering the same stories over and over again, presenting the same information they've already seen and heard countless times before.
Over 40% feel stations are too sensational in the way they cover or present the news. Nearly 40% think stations should provide a better balance of "good" and "bad" news, and 31% also want coverage of crime which focuses more on bringing suspects into custody (and less on sensationalizing their exploits).
Almost 30% find most local news promotion to be irritating and/or intentionally misleading. An identical number of viewers want more coverage of the "real" issues facing their community, while 27% also think most stations should show viewers more respect and stop underestimating their intelligence. Another 26% also want a broader scope of coverage (in every respect).

To help stations gain a better understanding of the positive steps they can take to better serve their audiences, Insite has worked with The Coaching Company to develop the "Local TV News Viewers Bill of Rights" which accompanies this report. For their part, viewers promise to reward any station making an active effort to address these issues. 63% of all news viewers say they'd definitely watch a station more often if it committed to these ideals, with most saying they would do so even if that station wasn't their current favorite. And 54% of those who don't watch say they would in fact come back to local news just to watch that kind of station.