FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact	Steve Riley
	404-897-7447

ATLANTA (MAY 26, 2005) – The Nielsen May 2005 ratings period once again proved Channel 2 Action News led the Atlanta market, winning every newscast time period with dramatic margins over its competition.

Overall, Channel 2 Action News added another sweep victory to its growing winning streak in every newscast in head-to-head competition. The station’s 59% of the total local news audience continued the station’s undisputed market dominance.

Channel 2 Action News continued to command dominating competitive leads in head-to-head competition. Here are the Atlanta market highlights:

Channel 2 Action News from 5-7 a.m. drew 54% of the local morning news audience during the two-hour time period. Combined, Channel 2’s two-hour block more than doubled second place WAGA. WGCL stopped airing a local morning newscast during the February Sweep period and replaced its 2-hour block with CBS news.

Channel 2 Action News at Noon captured 48% of the local news audience at noon and rated 50% higher than its closest competitor.

Channel 2 Action News at 5 p.m. delivered 61% of the 5 p.m. local news audience and its rating was 56% higher than WAGA, its only local news competitor in the time period. Channel 2’s hour-long newscast out-delivered WXIA’s Dr. Phil by 69%.

Channel 2 Action News at 6 p.m. nearly equaled the combined delivery of WAGA, WXIA and WGCL. The one-hour newscast continued to more than double the rating of WAGA, its closest local news competitor and captured 48% of the 6 p.m. local news audience.

Channel 2 Action News Nightbeat at 11 p.m. won the late newscasts with a 9.2 rating, delivering 53% greater audience levels than second place WXIA, and more than doubled the audience delivered by WGCL.

Total Ratings Share of All Local News Program Averages

Channel 2 Action News Saturday Morning from 8-10 a.m. averaged a 10.1 rating and out-delivered every newscast on all local competing stations, any day, any time period.

Local News Program Averages

The chart below shows the ratings for the weekday newscast time periods. Each rating point in the Atlanta DMA equals 20,595 households.

*WSB-TV airs noon news 12-1 p.m. WAGA, WXIA and WGCL air noon news 12-12:30 p.m.
**WSB-TV, WXIA and WGCL air late news 11-11:35 p.m. WAGA’s newscast airs 10-11 p.m. WUPA airs news content provided by WXIA from 10-10:30 p.m. These numbers represent a seven-day average for each station.

*WSB-TV airs noon news 12-1 p.m. WAGA, WXIA and WGCL air noon news 12-12:30 p.m.
**WSB-TV, WXIA and WGCL air late news 11-11:35 p.m. WAGA’s newscast airs 10-11 p.m. WUPA airs news content provided by WXIA from 10-10:30 p.m.
WXIA exempts its Saturday night 11:00 p.m. newscast from the full seven-day average. Including Saturday, WXIA’s 11:00 p.m. news averaged a 5.4 rating.

OTHER PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS :

Once again, Channel 2, WSB-TV continued its streak of winning 85% of the weekday time periods, leading in 21 of 24 hours.

Oprah crushed the 4 p.m. competition, grabbing 74% more audience than WAGA’s court show block, and more than tripled the audience of WXIA and WGCL.

ABC’s Good Morning America,World News Tonight and Nightline easily won their respective time periods.

ABC’S BREAKOUT PRIME TIME HITS ON CHANNEL 2 BREAK DOWN THE COMPETITION!

ABC on Channel 2 continued to break records on Sunday by winning television’s most popular night in convincing fashion.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition at 8 p.m. drew a 13 rating, Desperate Housewives at 9 p.m., averaged a 22.1. The latest ABC hit show, Grey’s Anatomy at 10 p.m. drew a 15.5 rating.

On Wednesday night, Lost, at 8 p.m., ended it’s rookie season by winning the time period with a 15.1 rating.

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Channel 2, WSB-TV, is a Cox Television Station and ABC Affiliate.

About Cox Television: Cox Television includes 15 television stations, 3 national television sales representation firms, a television production company, and a Washington D.C. news office. Cox Television is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, Inc., based in Atlanta.

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