BOSTON WASN’T WATCHING CELTICS, LISTENING TO BRUINS, OR READING ABOUT PATRIOTS IN JANUARY…OK, NOT TOO MUCH
By: Jim Boyle
During last January, the Boston population watched, listened to, and read over 333,000 advertisements on their favorite media outlets which cost advertising agencies and their clients over $96,000,000. Most of the careful observers would have believed Boston was immersed deeply in all things sports during January given all of their professional and college teams. Comprehensive data from Media Monitors*, a research firm that tracks Television, Cable, Radio and Newspapers across dozens of markets, indeed disclosed a very busy January for the Boston population, media, and its advertisers.
January’s marketing budgets and schedules were divided, among 42 Boston media outlets tracked, by the leaders as follows.
| — Top 7 TV Stations | $ 51.4 million [#1 station was WHDH-TV at $13.5 million estimate] |
| — Top 3 Newspapers | $ 27.4 million [#1 publication was Boston Globe at $14.2 million est.] |
| — Top 10 Radio Stns. | $ 11.6 million [#1 station was WODS-FM at $ 1.7 million est.] |
Although Boston fans were often glued to the home team games, especially while snowstorms lashed the northeast often in January, they also seem glued to advertising information.
| — Top 7 TV Stations | 97,400 spots [#1 was WSBK-TV at 20,100 instances] |
| — Top 10 Radio Stns. | 88,400 spots [#1 was WTKK-FM at 11,400] |
| — Top 6 Cable Nets | 62,600 spots [#1 was Comcast SportsNet at 15,500] |
| — Top 3 Newspapers | 2,200 ads [#1 was Boston Herald at 1,100] |
Among the Boston Television stations that were analyzed from the Media Monitors’ database of 50 TV markets, the leaders were WHDH-TV, WCVB-TV, and WBZ-TV that all garnered over $10,000,000 apiece in January.
From the many Cable TV Networks tracked across 50 metros, it may not surprise that in the headquarters of the mighty Red Sox Nation, the leaders in market share were Comcast SportsNet, New England Sports Network (NESN), and New England Cable News (NECN).
Apparently, because the Boston Metro is dotted with dozens of colleges and cultural attractions galore, the highly educated population loves their talk, news, and sports radio. Amidst the 1,600 radio stations that Media Monitors faithfully tracks in 85 markets, the 5 leading Bostonian radio stations as ranked by highest number of spots in January were all ensconced in that genre.
| 1.) WTKK-FM [Talk format] | 11,400 spots |
| 2.) WBZ-FM [Sports format] | 11,200 spots |
| 3.) WRKO-AM [Talk format] | 10,700 spots |
| 4.) WEEI-AM [Sports format] | 10,300 spots |
| 5.) WBZ-AM [News format] | 9,500 spots |
So many dollars and the bounty of advertisements that grace the leading media outlets affirm the Boston native’s proclivity for information and entertainment – whether they are voraciously consuming the latest politics, sports, celebrities or current events with that distinctive New England accent. Fortunately for advertisers that desire to talk to the Boston audience – the New Englanders are also very good listeners, readers and watchers of Boston media.