Content Survey Live U.S.A: Pool 1: Night 3: Lighting Up The Bay

 Will tonight's survey be as reliable as BART? (No, seriously: comparing ourselves with a transit system... that's new.)

Welcome to the third night of Content Survey Live: U.S.A. Tonight's survey is coming from the San Francisco Bay Area. Last night's survey saw Pittsburgh reach for New York... and just almost pip them at the post. With this pool now well and truly past the halfway point, we are now on the homeward stretch for the first quarter of the 2026 main season.

As we reach out to the world in 2026 and beyond (a teaser for the future perhaps), we are emphasizing your safety on the internet in the age of AI. And, that is why we believe the best choice for a VPN (where you can lock in US pricing for your trip to visit Alcatraz as a tourist (boat trip and all), or figuring out how much that trip to Silicon Valley will cost from central San Francisco, or just checking out pricing at Walmart/Target without leaving your house in Australia) is Surfshark VPN. A VPN can make your life a whole lot easier when organizing your next trip to the San Francisco Bay Area: yes, even if you are going to Oakland, (or Australia, if reading from the US: we'll leave the shrimp out to defrost while you come across the Pacific). Follow our link, and it helps deliver better content for you, and drives the challenge home.

And, now: onto the ground rules.

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 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 TALE OF THE TAPE... SAN FRANCISCO.

The Bay Area, is a news gatherers paradise, whether it be the city of San Francisco itself, or it's feeder communities, like San Jose or Oakland.

You also have the tech industry breeding ground of Silicon Valley within easy reach: to the point some Bay Area news services maintain dedicated Silicon Valley reporting facilities (a benefit even more utilized, during the NFL season: with the San Francisco 49ers based in the Silicon Valley area).

It's 11pm: KPIX's late news is about to hit the airwaves: serving a community whose reach and identity is just as much their own, as a wider Bay Area combined.

N.B. This survey is being done off Tuesday night's news (thank god for timezones) due to the lack of access for Wednesday night's news.
I also think, the long-term vision is to amalgamate the Bay Area and Sacramento feeds for CBS's news streaming service: made even more important with the recent rebrand of CBS News Bay Area as CBS News NORCAL (with Sacramento-led coverage (a bulletin we'll be dealing with in Pool 3) now filling off-time in the Bay Area)

We open up this bulletin with a lost dog story with a twist: where a AI image is being utilized to scam owners of lost pets, a look at the tourism rebound... despite Chinese being slow to return, two voiced over pieces: a homeless encampment being cleared in Coyote Meadows, and a Iran rally in Irvine.

But, the biggest differences so far with this bulletin has been the gentle insertion of stories from outside the Bay Area market (that would have otherwise been covered in the CBS Evening News), into the late night broadcast: such as a story on the ongoing duelling Iran blockades, the Virginia redistricting referendum (take note Australia), a resignation of a Florida Congress member and a exploding wheelchair battery in South Florida.

Unlike New York (who utilised their expansive studio for weather only), San Francisco utilizes the virtual studio space beautifully: especially when the weatherman, Darren Peck gets his feet really dug into the setup: as seen here.

Sport, is a masterpiece of having your studio close to the stadium: where the presenter was at the game (tonight being a comeback victory for the San Francisco Giants over the current World Series Champions, the LA Dodgers at Oracle Park), while we have pieces concerning the NBA playoffs, and a new signing for the 49ers, Mike Evans (ex-Tampa Bay).

But the closer is a masterpiece: having sports, anchor and weather on set together for the final story... Ikea's meatball Chupa Chups flavour from April Fools Day... is now a real thing*

(* unknown if Ikea Australia will follow the US's lead) 

 

Overall, the Bay Area news service, is good... but is it ready to be post-season worthy?

THE SCORES:

2 local stories (decently produced at that, to the point that journo and cameraman (photographer in the US) always get their credit on the news).

Two voiced over stories (low, for the US: but is made up with the unusually high out-of-market story focus.

Four sports stories (when taking into account the presenter actually attended the Giants-Dodgers game, gives San Francisco a David Hill Number of 5)

Tonight's score: 8/10 and a David Hill Number of 5.

San Francisco leapfrogged New York tonight into first place for this pool, with Pittsburgh running a respectable third, with one more result to come. It is now increasingly likely that San Francisco may have just put itself into the post-season... based on it's format alone.

AMERICA, YOUR SEASON LAUNCH IS READY.

3. REACH FOR THE STARS.

CBS had been “Looking Good” in some shape or form, since fall 1979. It was a brave statement to not change their knitting. But it was the lateral step of “Reach for The Stars”, in 1981 that threw everyone for a loop.

We have now, the preview closed circuit CBS ran in early 1981 to convince affiliates to buy tie in packages (i.e. co-op money from CBS as WAGA Atlanta famously called when fighting a WSB/WXIA affiliation swap in 1980, “a trip to the home office”.)

The full campaign, turned out to be a great build, even though it was still using as part of the sing “Looking Good”

10 Melbourne, would make a major purchase of the ’81 CBS campaign for use in 1982. For 10 Melbourne, however: it would be the last major CBS campaign adaptation until 1991: as the station made it’s own, the “Home on Ten” campaign composed for Sydney/Melbourne in 1983.

Tomorrow: Pool 1 winds up with us arriving in Baltimore. Hometown to Hairspray... and the soon to be departing Marty Bass.

I cannot believe that the American adventure for Content Survey Live... has almost reached it's first pool completed... and tomorrow: you'll find out who's going on to postseason play.

See you either tomorrow or Saturday night for the final game of the week:

A reminder of our socials:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kuttsywoods.couch

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/veritasonkw.bsky.social

Substack: https://veritasonkw.substack.com/