From St. Pete Times Critic Eric Deggan's Blog:

March 10, 2008
Local TV News Ratings Show Typical WFLA/WTVT Fight
I 've only got detailed numbers for the core viewer demographic most local TV stations sell to advertisers, those aged 25 to 54.

But among this group in February's ratings race, WFLA-Ch. 8 was slightly on top in early evening and 11 p.m. newscast timeslots, pretty much flipping places with close rival WTVT-Ch. 13 from results we saw in November's ratings race.

The two stations are pretty much even in the early morning, from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. And though some local folks insist that the switch to daily demographic information back in October has changed the way advertisers buy time, the local TV stations continue to get $$ for promoting their stations from national sources in the sweeps months of February, May, July and November -- so that's when you see billboards, radio ads and other, non-TV advertising.

Here's the February numbers, among viewers aged 25 to 54, for the ratings junkies, courtesy of WTVT. The first number is the rating, or percentage of Tampa Bay area TV viewers aged 25 to 54 with TVs. The second number is the share, or percentage of Tampa Bay area viewers aged 25 to 54 with TVs turned on at the time.:

5 p.m. newscasts:
Dr. Phil/WTSP N/A
WFLA 2.0/9
WTVT (Fox 13) 1.7/7
WFTS-Ch. 28 (ABC Action News) 0.8/4

5:30 p.m. newscasts:
WFLA 2.0/8
WTSP (shows Dr. Phil; no news ratings)
WTVT 1.6/6
WFTS 0.9/3

6 p.m. newscasts:
WTSP-Ch. 10 1.8/6
WFLA 2.3/8
WTVT Fox 13 2.2/8
WFTS Action News 1.1/4

6:30 p.m. newscasts (network, except for WTVT):
WTSP 1.5/5
WFLA 2.5/8
WTVT Fox 13 2.3/7
WFTS Action News 1.5/5

10 p.m. newscasts:
WFLA on WTTA-Ch. 38 0.4/1
WTVT Fox 13 News 11p 4.3/10

11 p.m. newscasts:
WFLA 2.1/6
WTSP-Ch. 10 1.5/5
WTVT Fox 13 News 11p 1.9/6
WFTS Action News 1.6/5

6 a.m. to 7 a.m. newscasts:
WFLA- 2.7/16
WTSP- 0.4/2
WTVT 2.6/15.5
WFTS 0.8/5