I guess all the news about people moving to Houston is true. Today, ratings company Nielsen announced its list of the 2016-2017 television markets and Houston jumped from market 10 to 8!
If Houston moved up to 8, that means we passed Boston (Manchester) and Atlanta.
So what does it matter? I am no sales expert, but I understand advertisers like to buy spots in the top 10 markets. So I'm not sure what this means for us moving up two spots. Bragging rights?
"Other than proving the point that Houston is a growing market, I’m not sure this changes anything on TV pricing," Chris Caldwell of advertising firm Briggs & Caldwell told mikemcguff.com. "So, yes, bragging rights are probably the biggest stake. When Houston went from #11 to #10 a few years ago, stations told us that they would be on more national buys (advertisers who target top ten markets)…thereby making inventory tighter, and driving up rates. The change in rank is probably more of an impact to news talent who are constantly trying to upgrade the size market for which they report. Boston and Atlanta people will now want to come here. LOL."
Heck, I remember the old days when we were market 11. In fact, I remember when we hit market 10. Now that did make a difference. On a personal level, when I was working in the channel 13 consumer office, we immediately started getting more emails from companies trying to get us to test their products.
SEE THE FULL LIST
Top 10 Local Television Market Universe Estimates
Estimates as of January 1, 2017 and used throughout the 2016-2017 television season
Estimates are effective September 24, 2016
1 New York
2 Los Angeles
3 Chicago
4 Philadelphia
5 Dallas-Ft. Worth
6 San Francisco-Oak-San Jose
7 Washington, DC (Hagrstwn)
8 Houston
9 Boston (Manchester)
10 Atlanta
