TV Consultants Bring Success to Television Stations

TV Consultants Bring Success to Television Stations TV Consultants Bring Success to Television Stations A TV consultant will never have her face or name on the nightly news broadcast. But this expert, who is hired to work behind the scenes, can be credited with transforming a television stations newscast into a program that is successful, delivering higher ratings and more profits, by having a keen sense of knowing what an audience wants to see. A TV Consultant Is a Market Research Expert Its not common to think of market research and a television newscast being connected. Thats because many people would think a TV newscast simply reports about what happened in a community, while market research is something a company would conduct before launching a new line of cars, cereal or cosmetics. But a TV consultant can look beyond the array of house fires, murders and court cases that make up a typical newscast to find out what an audience wants from a news program. Thats an advantage a TV consultant has by being hired from outside the company she has a distance from the news product so she can more easily ask questions to find out if its reaching its target audience. If a station wants to reach more women in the 25-54 age demographic, a TV consultant might suggest shortening the nightly sportscast to add more health news. A viewer at home might not even realize a subtle change has been made in content, but the station might find that its Nielsen ratings are reflecting the shift by drawing more female viewers, which can be used to sell TV advertisements to them. A TV Consultant Knows How to Use Focus Groups An important part of conducting TV market research is holding focus groups. These are small groups of viewers who are gathered to be asked specific questions about their attitudes toward a citys TV newscasts in general and about the client station in particular. About 15-20 viewers are chosen based on gender, race, age and possibly income. Typically, a TV consultant will conduct a meeting with them while the TV stations management watches behind a one-way glass so that they cant be seen. Questions are usually asked to find out how a client station is viewed in the market. A TV consultant might ask in a focus group, Which station has the best newscast and why? or Do you know which station says it has the most advanced Doppler radar? If a station spent $1 million on a radar system and the viewers say in a focus group that a competing station has a better weathercast, it signals to management that theres a problem, either with the promotion of the radar or possibly with the stations weather team. Focus groups can be asked detailed questions about a TV stations on-air news team. Thats why anchors and reporters are rarely invited to witness a focus group discussion and may not even be aware that one has taken place. If viewers suddenly see a longtime anchor get dumped, especially to make room to hire an anchor from a competitor, that could be a signal that focus groups preferred the competitors on-air talent. A TV Consultant Helps a News Team Fine-Tune Its Newscast While a TV consultants work in conducting market research and focus groups is usually kept secret from most people in a TV stations newsroom, she is still a familiar presence. Thats because a TV consultants contract usually includes working with anchors, reporters, and producers on ways to make the newscast more appealing. For those on-air, a TV consultant provides clothing, hair and makeup tips. In addition, its common for a consultant to coach the anchors on vocal delivery, ad-lib skills, posture, and pacing. Reporters are given ways of delivering better live reports and how to ask better questions during interviews. News producers and writers arent forgotten. They are given exercises in how to write stories that are easier for the viewers to understand, that arent filled with journalese and take advantage of the compelling news video that the videographers record each day. A TV consultants work is never finished. In many DMAs, each of the major stations has its own consultant doing the same research and suggesting the same strategies on how to increase the audience. A handful of TV consultant firms control the vast majority of business at stations across the country. Thats one reason why a station that uses Coverage You Can Count On as its slogan as it becomes the top-rated station in its DMA will be copied by countless others which adopt the same motto and marketing plan. Even so, a TV consultant is one of the most important people in a TV newsroom, even if shes never on the payroll.