Fox News in a Ratings Slump

[fred flintstone]

Here's a little tidbit that will make many people here happy:

NEW YORK (AP - Fox News Channel will mark its 10th anniversary this week in an unusual position: knocked back on its heels.

The network is in the midst of its first-ever ratings slump. Cable news' most stable lineup is being juggled. [snip]

But the years of explosive growth have ended at Fox. Viewership over the first eight months of the year was down 5 percent compared to 2005, with a steeper 13 percent decline in prime-time, according to Nielsen Media Research. For 12 straight months, Fox's prime-time audience has been smaller than the year before. Meanwhile, CNN viewership inched up 5 percent this year through August. [snip]

Full Text

While Fox News Channel is known as a rightie cable talk network, it's programming is also distributed to satellite radio and some of it to terrestrial radio, as well. Several of its better known hosts also do syndicated shows for terrestrial radio and other terrestrial radio talk show hosts are frequent guests.

More bad news: The article says Fox kept fees low to get on cable and satellite system; now they want to quadruple those feeds - which means costs passed along to subscribers and higher cable and satellite bills. Wonder if some systems will drop Fox?

Why are Fox freaks tuning out? And are the Ditto heads tuning away on the radio side, as well?
Maybe public dissatisfaction with Bush is spilling over to his talk show shills. Maybe people (even guys) are getting tired of the never-ending broadcast p___-fest.

 

[dampier]

This is actually old news. I wrote in the National TV forum about the Fox Fees issue months ago. Most cable companies are simply going to pony up the money and pass it on in rate increases.

Fox News paid the highest launch bonus in the history of the cable industry back in the mid 1990s - sometimes as much as $6-10 per subscriber to get them on the cable systems. They also threatened legal action (judicial activism ohmy) against Time Warner to get them space on TW's eastern big city systems.

 

[fred flintstone]

This is actually old news. I wrote in the National TV forum about the Fox Fees issue months ago. Most cable companies are simply going to pony up the money and pass it on in rate increases.

Fox News paid the highest launch bonus in the history of the cable industry back in the mid 1990s - sometimes as much as $6-10 per subscriber to get them on the cable systems. They also threatened legal action (judicial activism ohmy) against Time Warner to get them space on TW's eastern big city systems.

The "fees issue" is secondary. The story is the ratings slump.
And the ratings slump makes it harder for Fox to collect much higher fees. Either they back off or lose some systems.

Looks like rightie talk is wearing out its welcome - maybe all arguementative political talk.
Not only do stations and rightie hosts need to be re-thinking their approach, AAR and other progressive talkers need to revisit the drawing board, as well (since they are pretty much operating out of the rightie's talk radio playbook).

 

[country24]

Even with Fox's slump and CNN's gain, Fox still has twice the audience of CNN.

 

[_Jim]

Even with Fox's slump and CNN's gain, Fox still has twice the audience of CNN.

Confusing a naysayer with the facts?

Leave'm be; let'm stew; let them think they're winning -sorta the same way as when dealing with a mad room-mate or a nutty wife- let'm have thier say ...

Meamwhile ... we're witnessing the slow crumble of Err America before our very eyes (good bye KXEB 910) all the while WHILE it is 'proclaimed' that 'progressive' *cough cough* 'talk radio' is gaining on 'rightie'.

Right.

We just lost our AAR affiliate here in the Del Norte Texas; I'll miss'm, some, especially those loons who did the 'Ring of Fire' SKITS on the weekends. Hilarious! Almost as nutty as Hurricane Katrina VanDenHuvel of 'The Nation'.
What was up with the Kennedy due anyway? Does he have a lung condition or something - always sounded as if he had just taken a hit off a bong ...