A Hawaiian eye on US sport's biggest night.
This is Full-Time Fallout.
Welcome, to the first ever American survey for Content Survey Live (the first competitive one however,
is next month, when New York stakes it's claim) a event, that has had more changes than hot dinners.
THE GROUND RULES.
Our focus, in Content Survey Live will be monitoring multiple news services over a significant timespan (a benefit of technological change, now allowing us to watch American news bulletins here in Australia), using the a slight modification of the same criteria we used in the “Great Local News Study” from Kuttsy's Pitch XI in August, 2019 and in Content Survey Live between 2020 and 2024.
-Locally sourced stories: that is stories reported by local journos. Really big local market stories with national impacts, also fit here. Voiced over local stories are counted separately.
-Live crosses: stuff that is used to embellish a story.
-Weather and traffic reports are not counted.
-Sport stories are counted for one point if it’s a voiced over piece: but… if you have a reporter on the scene reporting on the event, it counts for two points. This sports reporting scoring system is a modified version of the “Ray Robinson Number” from the 2024 special event, and the 2025 edition of Content Survey Live, which was utilized to examine overnight news, and will be counted up at the end of the regular season as a special secondary achievement going to the market who has the highest sports score.
This number, will be named… the David Hill Number: in commemoration of the role Hill played in revolutionizing sports coverage in Australia (as VP for sport for Nine in the mid eighties), the United Kingdom (launching UK cable powerhouse Sky Sports) and in the US (the founding father of Fox Sports, whose innovations reshaped NFL and other sport coverage for the better).
In addition, all scores in 2026 will be reported in a new format: a ranking out of 10: David Hill Number (e.g. 5.8/10 and a David Hill Number of 3) rather than separating these figures out.
The unusual part of this survey: it's a absolute first: a content survey done outside Australia in a hotel room (in between waiting for Winter Olympics coverage to kick off on USA Network).
And, no: we didn't stay in the same place Derryn Hinch did in 1992... but it felt like there was a small hurricane that weekend (which saw all on-water activities canned for the weekend: a good day perhaps to watch the Superbowl at lunchtime with hundreds of others)
Let's begin with some background.
The Hawaiian TV scene is interesting to say the least, with three different affiliate groups fighting it out for market share: Nexstar (owns the Fox affiliate in the market, and operates a CW O&O on a subchannel), Gray (operates the CBS and NBC affiliates for the market (with a combined newsroom), and offers Spanish language Telemundo via a subchannel), and small scale powerhouse Allen Media, who also own the Weather Channel in the US (and operates the ABC affiliate for the market, as well as a curiosity: a Japanese-skewed independent station, a moneymaker in a market with significant Japanese tourism and diaspora, with both stations facing a uncertain future while Allen are investigating a sale).
So, let's go back in time to Superbowl Sunday, where we caught up on the 10pm news on KGMB (CBS station, that shares a newsroom with the NBC station)... with a very big lead story: enough to run a live weather cross off the bat. The storm situation had been evolving through the day, with flood warnings, power outages and even road closures, as well as voiced over pieces about a state emergency declaration for Monday (which shut places like the Pearl Harbor memorial and the Honolulu Zoo), water use restrictions in parts of Oahu, landslides in Maui, snow (yes, snow) on the top of Mauna Kea on the Big Island, a false alarm sent to Hawaii Pacific University students about a active shooter, a update about a crash earlier in 2026 in Waimanalo, the big queues for poke prior to the big game.
We also get a story on the closure of Jesse's Bakery in Kalihi, and the local spin on Superbowl 60 (especially with the Seattle diaspora gathering at a Ala Moana restaurant) while we get a wrap of the game itself presented locally (which by the time the 10pm news airs... finished five hours ago), with press room highlights (1pt for the David Hill Number).
Over all, a solid night, for a local station in America... albeit the chunk in the middle of the Pacific.
Let's go across the scores.
-4 full local stories.
-1 live cross
-9 voiced over pieces (however these pieces actually adds value to the bulletin... unlike Australian news products)
-One sports piece (1pt for the David Hill Number)
The score is: 7.5/10 (David Hill number of 1)
This figure, is slightly above the number Brisbane scored on Game 3 of last year's Content Survey Live Grand Final, that secured them the Australian slot for this year's World Championships in September.
And, this is for a market without major league franchises.
But before we go, tonight: we'll leave you with something we briefly mentioned in the last Veritas on KW exclusively on Patreon.
Let me introduce you to the best advertising campaign for a bank anywhere on the planet.
The real deal kicks off on April 21 (Australian time), when Pool 1 kicks off with the #1 market in the US: New York City.
America: your survey is ready in just 45 days.
Substack: (Veritas on KW on Sunday's out tomorrow, 6am BTW): https://veritasonkw.substack.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment