Among viewers prized by advertisers, Tampa fox affiliate WTVT-Ch. 13 scored a dominant victory during November's "sweeps" period, scoring at the top or tying for first place in many major news dayparts with viewers aged 25 to 54.

According to figures provided by WTVT, the channel eked ahead of WFLA weekdays from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. (but I don't have ratings broken out for shows inside that time period, say 6 a.m. to 7 a.m.), tied for first place with WFLA at 5 p.m. and scored number one at 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (even beating the networks' national newscasts).

Longtime anchor Bob Hite's 30-day departure didn't seem to help WFLA much with this audience, especially at 11 p.m., where CBS affiliate WTSP-Ch. 10 scored the top rating, 2.8, likely on the strength of the network's prime time shows.

The other interesting tidbit to come from the ratings WTVT provided, was a look at how Local People Meters have affected the ratings race locally. Faithful blog readers will recall I wrote about these devices nearly two months ago when they debuted in Tampa; they allow local stations to access every day demographic ratings like the ones I've been spouting about above. Previously, they could only access such data measuring four "sweeps" months of each year.

The ratings data shows that, as expected, market leaders such as WFLA and WTVT took ratings hits, while less-watched stations such as WFTS-Ch. 28 saw small increases. At 5 p.m., for example, WTVT lost nearly 50 percent of its viewership, going from a 3.0 in july to a 1.7 in November. (the rating is the percentage of all people aged 25 to 54 in households with TVs in the Tampa market)

And at 10 p.m., WTVT slid from a dominant 5.8 in July to 3.5 in November. WFLA saw its ratings among 25 to 54 year olds drop a full ratings point at 6 p.m., from 2.9 in July to 1.9 in October.

At 11 p.m., WFLA dipped from a 3.8 in July to a 2.2 in October, while WTVT's NewsEdge 11 p.m. show dipped from a 2.2 in July to a 1.5. CBS affiliate WTSP saw an increase, however, from 1.9 in July to 2.2 in October. WTSP also won the sweeps ratings race at 11 p.m. in this demographic, scoring a 2.8 in November.

These may all sound like small numbers. But in a market where TV advertising totaled more than  $350-million last year, each ratings point can add up to tens of thousands of dollars in potential revenue for each station (and the stakes get higher next year, because it's a hotly-contested presidential election year, which means lots of TV ads).

Here's the November numbers, among viewers aged 25 to 54, for the ratings junkies:   

11 p.m. newscasts:
WFLA NC8 at 11p               1.9
WTSP-Ch. 10                     2.8 
WTVT Fox 13 News  11p     1.6
WFTS Action News at 11p   2.2

6:30 p.m. newscasts:
WTSP                    1.3
WFLA                    2.0
WTVT Fox 13        2.3
WFTS Action News  0.9

6 p.m. newscasts:
WTSP                    1.7
WFLA                    2.0
WTVT Fox 13        2.4
WFTS Action News  0.7

5:30 p.m. newscasts:
WFLA                 1.2
WTSP (shows Dr. Phil; no news ratings)   
WTVT                 2.2
WFTS                 0.6

5 p.m. newscasts:
Dr. Phil/WTSP   N/A
WFLA                    1.7
WTVT Fox 13        1.7
WFTS Action News  0.6

7 a.m. to 9 a.m.:
WFLA-(Today show)                2.2   
WTSP- (Early Show)                 0.5
WTVT (Good Day Tampa Bay)   2.8
WFTS (Good Morning Amer.)    1.0