Cable Nets: Fox Down 10%, CNN Up 9%

Viewership for cable TV news networks are down by big double-digit percentages generally versus a year ago.

In the third quarter of this year -- July through September -- cable TV news leader Fox News was down 10% to a total day Nielsen average of 1.03 million viewers. MSNBC sank 27% to 378,000. Al Jazeera America was down nearly 30% to 20,000 viewers from the totals obtained by predecessor Current.

All TV news networks had generally high viewer interest coming from last year’s big presidential campaigns.

But two others, Turner Broadcasting’s CNN and HLN, had gains: CNN grew 9% to 422,000 and HLN was up 19% to 286,000. CNN has benefited of late from programming changes coming from new chief executive Jeff Zucker.

Virtually all TV networks lost ground in prime time, however. Fox News was down 19% to 1.63 million viewers. MSNBC was off nearly 40% to 580,000; CNN also lost by double-digit percentages, down 12% to 547,000. Al Jazeera America dropped 35% to 24,000 from Current’s 37,000 in the third quarter of a year ago.

Only HLN witnessed higher third-quarter numbers in prime time: up 17% to 367,000.

1 comment about "Cable Nets: Fox Down 10%, CNN Up 9%".
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  1. Edmund Singleton from Winstion Communications, October 3, 2013 at 6:52 a.m.

    I don't like to take sides in the news business but I will. Take any political issue in the news and one can almost predict the editorial opinion that will be taken station wide on the Fox Network. As for CNN is only to viewed when news is breaking, they are very good at that. But a news crawl on every show is too much of a distraction. And everyone stop with the women with greasy lips...please...

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