-By Katy Bachman

Home to the second largest banking center in the nation, Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., adding about 70,000 new residents each year. The Charlotte media market is moving up in the Nielsen and Arbitron ranks, too. For the current season, Charlotte nosed out Indianapolis to become the 25th largest TV market with a 3.8 percent increase in TV households.

Last fall, Arbitron redefined the market (to Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill), increasing the population included in its measurement area by 30 percent and bumping up the market's rank from No. 33 to No. 25.

Charlotte is also a hot market for out-of-home--four of five Charlotte residents travel 50 or more miles a week while 39 percent travel 200 miles or more, earning the market a No. 7 rank among major cities in outdoor advertising, according to Scarborough. Adams Outdoor, the fourth largest outdoor company in the nation, dominates the market with about 96 percent of the local assets.

The company is completing the build-out of 19 digital billboards, of which 16 will make up the single largest network of digital boards in the U.S. It’s also bringing "spectacular" signage to Charlotte's new EpiCentre, an entertainment, residential and retail center due to be completed this year.

Two media companies will soon enter the market. At the end of 2007, Lincoln Financial Group agreed to sell its TV stations to Raycom Media, which included the sale of WBTV, Charlotte's CBS affiliate. And privately held Greater Media picked up Lincoln's three local radio stations, putting it up against giants CBS Radio, which has six stations including the top four-rated stations, and Clear Channel, which has five outlets.

Capitol Broadcasting owns the only TV duopoly in town: The CW affiliate WJZY and MyNetworkTV affil WMYT. Other TV owners include Cox Television, Belo and Bahakel Communications.

Vital Stats:

* TV DMA Rank: 25
* Population 2-plus: 2,662,737
* TV Households: 1,085,640
* No. of TV stations (Net/Ind/Public/Local Cable): 6/2/5/1
* No. Cable Households: 984,400
* Radio Metro Rank: 25
* Population 12-plus: 1,886,100
* No. of radio stations (rated): 60

The Numbers:

Click here for demo data

Click here for media usage data

Click here for marketplace data