Media outlets big and small will be on the ground reporting, but for Spectrum News 1 Wisconsin, the convention is literally in its backyard with the Charter-owned news network actually located within the convention perimeters. “We have the benefit of being able to cover it on the hyperlocal basis with a team of reporters who live and work and cover Milwaukee and Wisconsin every day,” Sam Singal, GVP, Spectrum News, told CFX.

The RNC established what’s called Media Row in 2016 as a hub for some of the smaller news outlets covering the convention that don’t erect their own newsrooms at the event. This year, it’s created a Wisconsin Media Row, specifically for local media organizations. Some 24 outlets are participating including Spectrum News, Gray Television (on behalf of WEAU and KBJR) and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We have said from the get-go that the 2024 Republican National Convention will be a Wisconsin convention,” RNC Committee on Arrangements CEO Elise Dickens said in a statement. “That’s why we’re so excited about our Wisconsin Media Row, the first-of-its-kind hub for local Wisconsin outlets to connect with a wide range of surrogates. Wisconsin Media Row will be the heartbeat of Media Row—a reflection of how committed our convention and party are to Wisconsin as we head into November.”

Singal hopes that Spectrum News is able to stand out with its local perspective. In addition to its team of political reporters in Milwaukee as well as reporters from its DC bureau, it will send more than 30 people to the convention.

“What I hope is that our reporting will be unique and original and really dig into the issues that are part of the convention, but also we’ll be able to report with more depth than our competitors about what’s happening in Milwaukee—the local delegations, the impact that it’s having on the City of Milwaukee, if there are protests or activities outside the perimeter, we’re going to be incredibly well positioned to cover those as well. I hope that we’re able to tell stories that nobody else is telling.”

Next week’s RNC marks the first in-person convention in eight years. One major difference from 2016 is the importance social media influencers are now playing in the political arena. TiKTok didn’t even come to the U.S. until 2018. “The parties have recognized that the social aspect of this is important and most of them have invited creators specifically to come in and have access the same way that journalists do,” Nathan Hurst, Political Editor for C-SPAN, told CFX. “The fact that we have these creator zones at these conventions is just a fascinating change from what we’ve seen in years past.”

C-SPAN has been on a digital-forward mission itself, and that will include a strong social media presence during the conventions along with coverage on its television networks. It will provide gavel-to-gavel, uninterrupted convention coverage across its platforms, just as it has done for every RNC and DNC political convention since 1984. C-SPAN’s call-in program “Washington Journal” will also be live from Milwaukee 7-10am ET on Sunday and from 7-11am ET, Monday through Thursday.

C-SPAN’s TikTok account has nearly a million followers, with recent videos on the campaign trail amassing millions of views. “It’s interesting, because we don’t have ratings… But we can actually see metrics on social and it’s fascinating to see what does numbers on something like TikTok or Instagram. And that’s a new thing for us to look at,” Hurst said. “We’ve seen a lot of traction recently on TikTok, and it makes sense for us to press on those platforms as much as we can. We want to meet viewers where they are, and we know that there’s an interest and hunger for political coverage.”

While news teams are gearing up for their first conventions since the pandemic, for the most part, it’s like riding a bicycle. “Preparing for a convention post-COVID is really no different than what we did during and before COVID. It’s all about finding the right balance between attention to detail and leaving room for the unknown,” said Fox News’ Doug Rohrbeck, SVP of Washington News and Politics. “It doesn’t matter if you’re inside the arena or on a rooftop. You bring your star power, research the speakers and themes of the day, and deliver a high-energy production to match the moment.”

Special coverage emanating from Milwaukee will begin on Sunday with Fox News Sunday’s Shannon Bream anchoring live coverage on FOX broadcast network. Fox News will have coverage throughout the week, with nightly specials at 10pm Monday through Thursday hosted by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

While Spectrum News has the home team advantage for Milwaukee, NewsNation gets its chance when the Democratic National Convention heads to Chicago in August. The conventions are new territory for the Nexstar-owned network, with WGN America relaunching as NewsNation in March 2021. It’s roaring to go, kicking off coverage Sunday with a special edition of “The Hill” at 10am ET live on location from inside the convention area.

“With NewsNation based in Chicago, along with our political media powerhouse, Washington D.C. based The Hill, we are uniquely positioned to deliver extensive coverage on every aspect of the RNC and DNC conventions,” said Sean Compton, President of Nexstar’s Networks division. “From live speeches and breaking news from the convention floor and on the campaign trail, to taking the temperature of voters regarding the issues that are of utmost importance to them, our goal is to offer viewers unbiased, accurate and up-to-the-minute reporting in the race for the 2024 Presidency.”

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CNN fell 12% from the first night, bringing in 3.6mln, and Fox News gained 3%, averaging 3.5mln. During the 10pm hour, which featured former pres Bill Clinton and Dr. Jill Biden, MSNBC hit 5.4mln viewers. CNN saw 4.3mln and Fox News earned 2.2mln. In the A25-54 demo in all primetime, CNN topped with 1.047mln. MSNBC drew in 836K viewers and Fox followed with 836K.

The post DNC Night 2 appeared first on Cablefax.

The initial headlines said that the viewership on “television” of the first night of the Democratic National Convention was down by about 25% from the prior convention. Oh, wait a minute, those were the “Nielsen” numbers. They left out those (estimated at over 10 million) who were watching on a “streaming” app! If you counted those, then the “viewership” exceeded the last convention.

As I’m sure you noted, I’ve had to put quotation marks around the words viewership, television, streaming and the like because clearly there is no agreement any more about what any of those words mean! How about cooperation, consent, complicity and collusion? Thousands of pages of investigations later and there’s clearly no agreement on those, either. And then there’s television, cable television, broadband, streaming, OTT, and the like. Just look at the latest spate of numbers showing the alleged impending demise of the “cable industry” and you can really tell that no one knows what the heck is going on.

Let’s look at those numbers; well known researcher Bruce Leichtman released his quarterly report recently with the headline “Major Pay-TV Providers Lost About 1,570,000 Subscribers in 2Q 2020”. But, he noted, the top “cable companies” lost only 500,000, while satellite providers lost close to 900,000 and the “vMVPD” group that released numbers (Hulu + Live, Sling, AT&T Now) also lost subscribers.

But wait! Then came another headline from Bruce: “About 1,245,000 Added Broadband in 2Q 2020.” Based on the DNC numbers, a whole lot of folks who were watching things on what was narrowly defined as “television” are now watching that same thing on a “streaming” service via broadband. So if we stop playing word games and focus on whatever it is that is considered important, such as “viewers” in the case of the DNC, not how they viewed it, you get a totally different perspective on what’s actually happening.

The same is true if you want to focus on the medium. That is, for the “cable” industry, if someone wants to watch something on an aggregated channel that we offer, or on a “streaming” aggregated program service that someone else offers, the fact is they are still watching it on our infrastructure. The difference is that in one case we have to pay for the programming we aggregate (“cable service”) and in the other we escape all that expense and simply provide the means of delivery of the programming (broadband).

To be sure, it’s still a darn good deal if we can get customers to buy both services. However programming costs are escalating to the point, particularly with retransmission consent, that some cable operators find it’s a better business model to simply drop the aggregated programming service and focus on broadband delivery. Broadband has considerably better margins and much less hassle.

Meanwhile, the consumer press and other commentators still try to compare “cable service” prices and “streaming service” prices as though they were equivalent services, ignoring the fact that consumers buying “streaming services” then have to additionally pay for delivery!

I know you’ve read my laments about this before, but it’s to the point where, using the DNC example as an indicator of how confused the consumer press gets, it’s time for us to ask the “experts” like Bruce and analyst Craig Moffett for help. Their headline-fodder press releases should start introducing totally different language to explain what they’re talking about. Burying the clarifications in the details won’t work. The word play has gotten too confusing.

Steve Effros was President of CATA for 23 years and is now an advisor and consultant to the cable industry. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of Cablefax.

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