Charter Communications said its Spectrum News networks averaged more than 3 million daily viewing households in April, more than any other broadcast or cable news outlet in the cable operator’s nine-state footprint, according to its own set-top data.  

“We had record-setting audience gains in April, seeing increases in viewership and engagement on both our linear and digital news platforms for the month,” said Spectrum Networks executive VP Mike Bair in a press release. “Our networks were created around community-based journalism. Communities deserve access to objective reporting and deeply-rooted stories that reflect all angles of an issue; our customers rely on Spectrum News for essential news they can trust.”

Also Read: Michael Bair Hones Spectrum Networks Local Edge 

On April 20, the day of the Derek Chauvin verdict, Spectrum News networks recorded higher set-top box viewership than all broadcast networks where Spectrum has local news networks in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Texas. On April 28, Spectrum’s live network-wide coverage of President Joe Biden’s address to the joint session of Congress and post-address special recorded its highest-ever set-top box viewership for a national special, besting all broadcast and cable news networks’ averages in Spectrum News markets.

Highlights for the month include: 

Spectrum News Bay News 9 and News 13 in Florida: During major storms in Florida on April 11, Spectrum Bay News 9’s Nielsen ratings in Tampa (1.17) bested NBC (0.71), ABC (1.01), Fox News (0.88), CNN (0.48), MSNBC (0.60), and were seven times higher than the Weather Channel. In Orlando, Spectrum News 13’s viewership peaked from 1-2PM ET, drawing a larger audience than NBC, CNN and MSNBC combined.*

Spectrum News 1 North Carolina: The debut episode of “Front Porch Politics” with political anchor Tim Boyum on April 7 saw 25% higher ratings across the state than the previous 30-day average during the 8-8:30PM ET timeslot. **

Spectrum News 1 Ohio: The network’s new weekend morning news co-anchors Chuck Ringwalt and Brionna Rivers, who debuted on air in April, had an immediate impact on Spectrum News 1’s weekend morning audience, growing the network’s share of local news viewership by more than one point from Q1. **

Spectrum News 1 Kentucky: Since launching November 2018, Spectrum News 1 Kentucky’s engagement continues to grow, averaging higher engagement numbers than CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC combined. On April 5 the network introduced a new morning news format with more local news, stories and weather reports, co-anchored by Mario Anderson and Kayla Moody.  By the end of the month, Kentucky’s local news audience share grew 1.5% from 5-9AM and over 2% from 9AM-12PM. **

Spectrum said its Spectrum News App added more than 140,000 new downloads, bringing its total to over 1.1 million devices through May 6, a 5% overall increase from the previous month. On April 20, the day of Chauvin’s verdict, the app had more than 47,000 visits, the most of any day since launching last July. Visitors spent nearly 350,000 minutes in the app collectively, the fourth-highest total time spent since launch while live stream viewership accounted for 34% of time spent in the app.

*Nielsen metrics are based on Live+SD, Total Day household impressions in the following DMAs: Charlotte, Greensboro, Orlando, Raleigh, and Tampa.

**Spectrum set-top box data is sourced from all markets where Spectrum News has distribution, and are based on a minimum threshold of 5 consecutive minutes of viewing on one station to count as a viewing HH.

Michael Bair knows his way around a sports network. The longtime media executive worked at ad firm Ogilvy & Mather, Showtime, HBO, Cablevision Systems and Rainbow Media before a nine-year stint as president of Madison Square Garden Media Group and two years as CEO of streaming startup Bleachers Corp. He joined Charter Communications in 2016, after the merger with Time Warner Cable, to run Spectrum Networks. Now in charge of 30 sports and news channels, including the iconic NY1, Spectrum SportsNet and SportsNet LA in Los Angeles and local sports channels in Kansas City and Hawaii (as well as a 27% stake in SNY, the TV home of the New York Mets), Bair is guiding the channels through one of the industry’s most disruptive periods ever. He discussed the changing landscape with Multichannel News/B+C senior content producer, finance, Mike Farrell. An edited transcript follows.

With vaccines more widespread and MLB planning a 162-game schedule this season, are you optimistic sports may finally be on its way back? Sports took a pause but never fully went away. While I am optimistic that as the vaccine continues to roll out across the country, more and more stadiums and arenas will be able to safely welcome fans back, I am equally confident that fans will continue to tune in to SportsNet and SportsNet LA. Last season, Dodgers telecasts on SportsNet LA recorded the network’s highest-
ever household rating (2.63) and A25-54 rating (1.43), while Lakers live game broadcasts on SportsNet recorded the highest household rating (2.99) and A25-54 rating (2.03) since the 2012-13 season.   

You have four regional sports networks. Do you see that programming differently than some of your peers, as more of a retention tool? With all of our networks, sports and news, we focus on engagement. On the news side, who we are and what we do is entirely community-based. Our goal is to add value to the customers’ services and to be essential to their everyday lives. For sports, our goal is also to provide value — in this instance, by eliminating the middleman, which often increases the cost of sports programming. 

SportsNet LA, home of the current World Series champion Dodgers, signed a carriage deal with DirecTV owner AT&T last year. Are you close to other deals? We announced our carriage agreement with AT&T last April, and now SportsNet LA is available to 100% of homes in Las Vegas and Hawaii. We do not have anything to report on negotiations with other distributors, but it should be noted that Spectrum and AT&T are available to the vast majority of potential viewers in the Dodgers in-market area. 

You have news channels in markets as diverse as New York, Los Angeles and Bowling Green, Kentucky. How important is local news to the overall strategy? Local journalism is as essential to communities as are schools, parks and libraries. Over the past year, the pandemic has accentuated the critical need for reliable local news that informs and empowers communities. Yet, local news organizations are shutting down, cutting costs and reducing coverage. We’re largely going in the other direction, even launching new networks in Dallas, Texas, and Asheville, North Carolina, in the middle of the pandemic. 

What are your plans for those news channels? Over the past few years, we have launched networks in California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin. In 2020, we expanded our networks in North Carolina and Texas, and we launched the Spectrum News App to better enable Spectrum customers to access our news and content to our video and our internet-only customers. Our plan is to constantly increase and improve on our local coverage.  Going forward, as news consumption habits continue to evolve, our goal is to ensure that our customers can always access our news anytime and anywhere, whether they are watching, listening or reading.

Charter Communications said Tuesday it has named former Cablevision Systems executive Tom Montemagno (pictured) as executive vice president, programming acquisition, reporting to Charter senior executive vice president David Ellen.

Montemagno will oversee the negotiations with Charter’s content providers from the major multichannel media companies and regional sports networks to local broadcasters and niche international programmers – including include video on demand and out of home streaming rights on multiple platforms. In July, Charter said former content acquisition executive Allan Singer would be leaving the company rather than relocate to Charter's based in Stamford, Conn., from Denver.

“I have known and worked with Tom for many years,” Ellen said in a statement. “His negotiating ability will serve Charter extremely well as it continues to deliver its traditional video products with cost discipline. And his deep understanding of today’s complex rights structures will better position Charter to roll out innovative video product offerings that meet new needs. Tom will be a great asset. I am also really pleased that Andrew Rosenberg will remain with the company and become a top deputy to Tom. We’re fortunate to have such a strong team.” Rosenberg had been with Time Warner Cable before it merged with Charter. Charter, in addition to adding former Cablevision executive Ellen to the content team, has also brought on former MSG Networks executive Michael Bair to oversee regional news and sports networks.

Montemagno spent 27 years at Cablevision, most recently as executive vice president of programming. During his tenure there he served in various leadership positions in the programming department, including senior vice president of programming acquisition, and was Cablevision’s lead negotiator with content companies.