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© St. Petersburg Times, published August 24, 2002
The Miami/Fort Lauderdale area may have a larger population and bigger national profile than Tampa/St. Petersburg, but when it comes to TV ratings, the Tampa Bay area is top dog in Florida.
This news comes courtesy of Nielsen Media Research, which revised its rankings of the nation's TV markets after the July "sweeps" ratings period -- moving Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota up one rank to 13th and downgrading the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area to 17th.
The Tampa/St. Petersburg market's population is about 1-million people smaller than the Miami area, according to figures from the University of Florida. But Nielsen ranks the Tampa Bay area as Florida's largest TV market, noting it had the largest growth of any market across the country -- increasing by 51,000 households to 1.6-million total.
Experts say market ranking is based on the number of households that have televisions, not population. So an area with fewer people in each household might be ranked higher than a town where there are more people living under a single roof.
"We know that Hispanic households tend to be larger and multigenerational, so that may explain the difference (given Miami's larger Hispanic population)," said Anne Elliott, a spokeswoman for Nielsen.
More than a bragging right for TV executives, ranking among the nation's TV markets can have an impact on advertising rates, though local experts said the changes likely wouldn't make much difference for area TV stations.