TV Q&A: How can WPXI make its ‘most-watched news station’ claim?

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review.

Q: Channel 11, WPXI-TV says they are the “most-watched news station” in Pittsburgh. What is this based on? One show or newscasts throughout the day?

— Mike, Beaver

Rob: If you look carefully in that promo you’ll see small, white lettering at the bottom that indicates the metric the station is using is persons ages 25-54, a key demographic. So the claim really is that Channel 11 is the most-watched TV news station in that specific demo.

Looking at the May ratings I reported earlier this month, WPXI was indeed No. 1 in many but not all key demo time periods. I emailed news director Scott Trabandt and general manager Kevin Hayes to explain the discrepancy, but they did not respond.

My best guess is that they added up ratings on weekdays and on the weekends, numbers I do not have access to, and maybe that’s how they arrived at their boastful claim.

Q: Are the local news stations — KDKA, WPXI, WTAE — contractually obligated to air the 11 p.m. news no matter how late it’s delayed by sporting events, award shows, breaking world news coverage, etc.?

— Chad, via email

Rob: From a macro perspective, yes, broadcast contracts traditionally dictate that local stations air a regularly scheduled late newscast. It’s why Fox stations, which were typically independent stations before Fox launched in 1986, added 10 p.m. newscasts at that time.

But from a micro perspective, I don’t think stations have to offer the 11 p.m. news when a live event pushes the newscast to midnight. But often the types of TV events Chad describes are unpredictable and there’s no way to know with certainty when a sporting event will end. Maybe it ends at 11:05, maybe it ends at 12:05 a.m. There would be no point in saying, “Ah, let’s skip it tonight,” when you’ve already paid the staff to be at the station.

There was a time when KDKA-TV aired a “Pittsburgh Today Live” special in place of the 11 p.m. news on New Year’s Eve, so stations do have some flexibility.

Q: I’d like to know your thoughts on the use of profanity on one of the repeat movies Paramount Network airs. The movie is “Twister.” I notice that Bill Paxton’s use of the word s*** is bleeped out but his several utterances of the Lord’s name in vain are not bleeped out. How would something like that be justified on what I would call a regular TV channel? Also on Syfy Channel movies such as “Chucky” have aired with full-fledged use of f***. Every time I hear it, I ponder how they’re pulling it off on non-pay, non-subscription TV channels.

— Ronell, Mt. Pleasant

Rob: Syfy is not a broadcast channel so it does not have to obey the rules around profanity that a broadcaster does. You invite cable into your home; a broadcast channel is beamed into your home whether you want it or not via the public airwaves. That’s the key difference.

It’s been at least five years since USA and Syfy began allowing more profanity to air unbleeped.

Paramount Network is also a cable channel, not a broadcast channel, so it could also get away with more profanity than an over-the-air channel could if it wanted to, but it sounds like executives there made a different choice to bleep profanity, perhaps during certain dayparts. Taking the Lord’s name in vain may be offensive to some viewers but it’s not strictly speaking profanity.