KTTV Ad-Free Coverage Rains on Channel 5’s Rose Parade

The plan by KTTV Channel 11 to run its live coverage of the Tournament of Roses Parade on Tuesday without commercials apparently won a lot of new and appreciative viewers, according to the A.C. Nielsen ratings.

The Fox Broadcasting station closed in on the perennial parade leader KTLA Channel 5, the independent station that was running see-through sponsor logos with brief commercial messages during the 2 1/2-hour spectacle in Pasadena.

For the day, KTLA had 17.1 to 18 rating (percent of TV households) and a 36 share (share of TV sets turned on), compared with a 23.2 rating and 46 share last year. KTTV scored a 13.5 rating and a 28 share Tuesday, compared with an 8.5 rating and 17 share last Jan. 1.

(The slight variance in the KTLA rating is due to a dispute between the stations: KTTV maintains that KTLA coverage started at 8 a.m.; KTLA says, no, it actually started coverage at 8:15.)

Spokespeople for both stations indicated that the no-commercial presentation helped the KTTV numbers. The KTLA representative referred to the KTTV plan as “hype” but, “We are still thrilled with our figures.”

During their coverage, KTTV announcers made brief mentions of sponsors. It reran the coverage later in the morning then three more times during the day, with the addition of a half hour of regular commercial messages.

As is traditional, the network coverages had considerably smaller local audiences. ABC had a 3.2 rating and 7 share, NBC 2.4 rating and 5 share and CBS 1.8 rating and 4 share.