Morning News On the Rise

More viewers are watching morning television new programs, threatening the dominance of early evening newscasts, says a new study from Ball State University. The findings were presented April 20 at the Radio Television News Directors Association and National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas.

Researchers from Ball State’s Center for Media Design recorded the television habits of 101 subjects by comparing traditional phone surveys and diaries used to measure media usage with direct observations. They discovered that people watched more news from 6 to 10 a.m. than any other part of the day.   

According to the researchers, the findings suggest that morning news is more popular because of the time demands on the viewer's schedule. Television viewers are working and commuting more, and not may be home in time for the early evening news.

The study also found that early morning and early evening newscasts had an equal number of viewers, but early morning viewers spent more time watching news programming. The average television viewer was observed watching 94 minutes of news daily, nearly triple the amount recorded by phone surveys and diaries.

There were few differences in television viewing based on gender but extensive differences in media consumption based on age. Researchers discovered people 35 and older are watching television three times as much as people ages 18 to 34 and consuming nearly four times as much television news programming daily as their younger counterparts.