Disney’s Channel 9 Goes Giveaway Route to Boost Ratings

Conceding that they are violating the rules of the two TV audience-measurement services, executives at Disney-owned KCAL-TV Channel 9 plan to go ahead Monday with a contest designed to boost ratings by offering expensive prizes to viewers.

The giveaway, which includes a car and a diamond ring, requires that viewers watch Channel 9 programs between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. for clues during a four-week period that coincides with the monthlong February rating sweeps. Winners will be chosen in a random drawing of all entry forms containing information gleaned from a full week’s worth of clues.

“We’re in the business of advertising our program lineup and that’s all we’re doing,” said Marshall Hites, KCAL’s director of advertising and marketing. “We knew going in that (the ratings services) would probably put an asterisk by our (rating) number. That was a given.”

A spokeswoman for the A.C. Nielsen Co. said Friday that such a contest violates the guidelines her company provides to all stations regarding sweeps periods--the critical months when audiences in every market are measured, the results of which help determine a station’s advertising rates.

If other stations in Los Angeles complain to Nielsen about these tactics, the ratings service is likely to “flag” KCAL’s ratings for these time periods in its final report on the month, the spokeswoman said. In other words, the ratings data will explicitly say that “such and such a station employed a contest to draw in viewers during such and such time periods.”

Arbitron, the other company that measures local ratings, maintains similar rules and procedures.

One rival station employee who did not want to be identified called such “flagging” of the violation “a slap on the wrist” and doubted whether any advertiser would think twice about the number.

Which is exactly what KCAL is banking on. “Some agencies will say, ‘So what, they ran a contest,’ ” Hites said. “Radio and TV stations have been doing this for years.”

He said that stations in San Antonio, Tampa and Jacksonville, Fla., all ran similar contests when he worked in those markets.

Reaction so far from KCAL’s competitors has been lackluster, though those stations contacted all said that the ratings services would be notified by someone. Most said that they would reserve judgment until it was proven that the contest actually increased the station’s ratings.

“It’s a free country,” said Rick Feldman, station manager at KCOP Channel 13. “In this day and age it’s difficult to build viewership no matter who you are. So I don’t hold it against them. But unless the gimmick is tied in with the kind of shows that people want to watch, it’s not going to make much difference.”

Feldman pointed out that the two programs on Channel 9 during this time period--one hour of reruns of “Who’s the Boss?” and an hour of “Love Connection”--are known commodities, and he expressed doubt that a monthlong contest could sustain an increased audience once the contest ended.

But ad revenue is probably not the point for KCAL right now. Since Disney took control of the station 13 months ago, and especially since the station changed its call letters from KHJ last month, KCAL has been promoting itself heavily and lobbying hard for new viewers.

One competitor pointed out that the contest might simply be an attempt to draw a little more attention to the station, both from the public and the media, regardless of whether it actually lures more viewers to those two programs. And KCAL plans to roll out its three-hour, prime-time newscast in March, just after the sweeps period ends. Any extra viewers the station can grab during the time period immediately preceding its 8 p.m. newscast, this competitor said, certainly won’t hurt its expensive news experiment come March.