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Cable News Ratings

Meanwhile, the overall cable TV audience is dropping, with Fox channels down by 19%:

Cable networks are down -10% as pay television universe shrinks
With the exception of Disney, viewership numbers for parent cable companies all dropped in Q4 2017: A&E (-5%), Time Warner Cable (-8%), Viacom (-8%), Discovery Communications (-10%), Scripps Networks (-11%), NBCUniversal (-13%), Twenty-First Century Fox (-19%), and AMC Networks (-25%).

Viacom, down 8%, just announced layoffs for 10% of its workforce.
 
Might lead to a shakeout with marginal players being forced to leave. I won't be sad if MSNBC and CNN depart. Pretty remarkable that FNC is able to grow its audience in such a challenging environment.
 
umfan said:
Might lead to a shakeout with marginal players being forced to leave. I won't be sad if MSNBC and CNN depart.
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I doubt that will happen. Even with low domestic ratings, CNN makes a lot of money with its international services. And MSNBC is simply a side-business for NBC News.

What it does is make it less likely we'll see new players in the traditional business. I've been able to watch Newsy, and its pretty bare-bones. Another reason why Sinclair isn't rushing into this space. If they do, they won't be throwing around big talent contracts. Those days are over.

BTW I don't think FNC is actually growing. Their audience numbers appear to be about the same as they were a few years ago.
 
TheBigA said:
I doubt that will happen. Even with low domestic ratings, CNN makes a lot of money with its international services. And MSNBC is simply a side-business for NBC News.

What it does is make it less likely we'll see new players in the traditional business. I've been able to watch Newsy, and its pretty bare-bones. Another reason why Sinclair isn't rushing into this space. If they do, they won't be throwing around big talent contracts. Those days are over.

BTW I don't think FNC is actually growing. Their audience numbers appear to be about the same as they were a few years ago.
Click to expand...

And the average FNC viewer is still older than the average CNN or MSNBC viewer. Fox is fortunate that the TV advertising market is more receptive to 55+ buys than the radio market is. I'm sure umfan and the man in the White House would smile broadly if MSNBC and CNN were to call it quits, but I have a feeling they might be billing better than their ratings would indicate, given the elderly, monochromatic profile of the average Fox fan.
 
I'd guess CNN is marginally lower because of the viewers it gets in airports. Considering how small their audience is compared to their competitors, even MSNBC, it's really no solace that they have a slightly younger audience.
 
CTListener said:
Interesting. I wonder why the MSNBC audience is aging so sharply. Has CNN become the go-to network for young (relatively) liberal viewers?
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I think more likely is that MSNBC's overall audience growth in 2017 was largely from retirees. I say that because MSNBC's 25-54 prime time ratings are much stronger than CNN's. In January for example, MSNBC had the #1, #4 and #8 shows in that demo (Maddow, O'Donnell, Hayes), CNN had the #9 and #10 (Cooper, Cuomo).
 
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