• by December 11, 2000

By Anya Khait

The battle between cable and broadcast continues with the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau's (CAB) release of a study refuting statements made by Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) that wired cable audiences have been eroded by direct broadcast satellite. The study of wired cable audiences in the nation's Top 20 TV markets has found that there has been overall growth in every viewership measure.

According to a CAB analysis of local Nielsen data for the two most recent May sweeps, aggregate total day household delivery for wired cable homes in the Top 20 DMAs increased 6.2%, rating climbed 3.6%, and share rose 4.1%.

"It seems that TVB looked under some rocks to find a few smaller markets that were down in viewership. The truth is that the audience to wired cable has never been stronger," said CAB President & CEO Joe Ostrow.

On the cable ratings side, Fox News Channel beat CNN in prime time on seven of eight nights leading up to the Monday, Dec. 4, Supreme Court ruling on the presidential election. On that Monday night, Fox News Channel did a 2.1 rating/ 1.2 million households, compared with CNN's 1.3/1.0 million--the first time since the election that FNC has beat the monolith news channel in households as well as rating. Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" carried the night with a 3.1/1.7 million, from 8 to 9 p.m. From Monday, Nov. 27, to Monday, Dec. 4, CNN tied Fox News Channel only once, on Sunday, Dec. 3, when both pulled in a 1.1 in prime time, with 637,000 households going to FNC and 896,000 going to CNN.

The top Nielsen rated programs for the week ending December 3 were: "NFL: Lions vs. Vikings" (ESPN, 6.0, Thu), "NFL: Packers vs. Bears" (ESPN, 5.2, Sun), "WWF Entertainment" (TNT, 4.3, Mon), Movie: "Dune Part I" (SCIFI, 4.6, Sun), "WWF Entertainment" (TNT, 3.5, Mon), "NFL Primetime" (ESPN, 3.0, Sun), "Movie: The Wedding Singer" (TNT, 2.9, Sun), "Gore National Address" (FOXN, 2.0, Mon), "Rugrats" (NICK, 2.7, Sun), "Rugrats" (NICK, 2.6, Sun), "Spongebob" (NICK, 2.6, Sat), "Rugrats" (NICK, 2.5, Sat), Movie: "The Wedding Singer" (TNT, 2.5, Fri), "Rugrats" (NICK, 2.5, Tue), "Rugrats" (NICK, 2.5, Sat), "Spongebob" (NICK, 2.4, Sat), "Rugrats" (NICK, 2.4, Mon), "Rugrats" (NICK, 2.4, Mon), "Spongebob" (NICK, 2.4, Sun), and "Wild Thornberrys" (NICK, 2.4, Mon).

On the programming side, USA Network has pulled the plug on the made-for-TV movie "Who killed Sue Snow?" Common sense, not pressure from one of television's top advertisers, was behind the demise of the movie, according to a USA Network spokesman. "Who Killed Sue Snow" was based on the 1986 case of a woman who tried to cover the murder of her husband with poisoned Excedrin by lacing bottles on store shelves, mimicking the 1982 Tylenol tamperings.

Johnson & Johnson, maker of Tylenol, reportedly threatened to pull advertising. "We think this movie will cause a big problem," said one USA insider, but it was the network's new General Manager Rob Sorc