The average network news station airs more than five and a half hours of news every weekday.
That’s according to the latest figures from the annual RTDNA/Hofstra Survey, which found that 42% of stations increased their news production in the last year.
So which time periods grew most?
Weekdays at 4:30 am came out on top, but it had only a small lead over Saturday morning additions. Sunday morning and weekdays from 6 pm – 7 pm were close behind.
And there’s apparently more to come — 36.9% of TV stations say they plan to add more news next year.
Keep in mind that about a third of all TV stations produce news that they run on another TV station, so there are nearly infinite possibilities for news expansion.