LV jumps five places to become 56th-largest U.S. TV market

Wednesday, Sept. 2, 1998 | 11:23 a.m.

Las Vegas has jumped five places to become the No. 56 television market in the nation, according to Nielsen Media Research, the company that produces the Nielsen ratings.

"It's a pretty substantial jump, but it's not the largest this year," said Karen Kratz, senior manager of communications for Nielsen. "Birmingham (Ala.) jumped 12 spots because they added some large counties surrounding the city."

Birmingham went from No. 51 to No. 39 in the nation.

Population growth within the market is what spurred the city's leap from the No. 61 slot.

Kratz said Nielsen estimates the Las Vegas viewership area to have about 497,000 television households. The largest market, New York, has an estimated 6.8 million TV homes.

Nielsen unveils the market rankings every year just before the start of the new broadcast season when networks unveil new shows.

This year, the top 13 markets remained unchanged with Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco following New York as the top five. The next five are Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington, Detroit and Atlanta.

Another Nevada market made a substantial leap in the rankings this year: Reno climbed from the No. 118 market to No. 108, with an estimated 233,000 TV households.

"To the public, this is not going to mean very much," Kratz said. "But when people in Las Vegas watch television, they may see a few more national commercials now. That's because certain advertisers will have a cut-off point for their ads. They may want their ads to run in, say, the top 60 markets. Now, Las Vegas is among the top 60."