Fox News Sustains Cable TV Lead

Although cable news as a category drifted lower in 2014 versus the year before, Fox News mostly maintained its TV viewership versus a year ago — its 13th straight yearly win.

Fox News edged up 2% — the only network to do so — in the key viewer demographic where advertisers make deals: 25-54 viewer ratings rose to a Nielsen 300,000, through December 22. In total prime-time viewers Fox edged down 1% to a 1.75 million.

In a distant second place were MSNBC and CNN. CNN made gains against MSNBC in the key demo 25-54 — finishing ahead — 181,000 to 169,000 — with CNN down 1% and MSNBC losing a big 17%.

The picture for total viewers in prime-time was closer, with MSNBC ahead 589,000 (down 8%) to CNN’s 515,000 (off 9%). For CNN, the total viewers hit a record low.

advertisement

advertisement

CNN’s sister network, HLN, slipped 16% to 333,000 total viewers and 16% in 25-54 viewers to 117,000 in prime time.

Looking at total day viewership, Fox News also dominated again with 1.05 million viewers (down 4%) and 213,000 viewers among 25-54 viewers (also off 4%). CNN came in ahead of MSNBC in total day viewers, at 399,000 — down 3% from a year ago. MSNBC took a bigger hit  down 12%, registering 347,000 viewers. HLN lost 13% to 257,000.

All networks witnessed drops in 25-54 viewers in total day: Fox, off 4% to 213,000; CNN, also losing 4% to 126,000; MSNBC giving up 18% to 108,000; and HLN, down 6% to 105,000.

4 comments about "Fox News Sustains Cable TV Lead".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics, January 5, 2015 at 9:28 a.m.

    Just look at those numbers. With 1.75 million total viewers per minute in primetime, Fox garners 300,000 in the "key" news "demographic:, adults aged 25-54. In other words, the all important buying and selling demo, accounts for only 17% of Fox's audience delivery and, in terms of audience composition, the rival news channels aren't doing that much better. Let's face it, the core news viewer is somebody aged 60-85, not 25-54. Ooops! Silly me, I forgot that people cease to have any marketing value once they pass the 54 year age mark.

  2. Nicholas Schiavone from Nicholas P. Schiavone, LLC, January 5, 2015 at 6:56 p.m.

    Dear Ed,
    Let's not start this beautiful New Year with a pointless battle over TV, News, Advertising and Effectiveness.
    Your audience composition comment would have "critical" merit, if you found just one example of FOX News selling an audience and audience composition that it did not have.
    No Marketing, Adverising or Media Director has ever said anything to me other than what you see is what you get with an FNC Sales Proposal! ["Exclamation Point" - not "Period"] Moreover, as you well know, the primary issue is advertising effectiveness. A recent studies conducted by an independent third-party has revealed that FNC is an advertising vehicle which delivers extraordinary advertising communication results for its corporate and consumer sponsors.
    Without question FNC's Nielsen Ratings Leadership has a positive, "halo-effect" for its clients.
    Further, WARC (World Advertising Research Center) has made available an impressive ANA Journal Paper on the unique ROI values that have historically been associated with the advertising effectiveness derived from the FOX News Channels, as opposed to other television and news vehicles. Here is a reference & link to WARC on the topic of FNC & The Development and Delivery of Brand Resonance: [http://www.warc.com/Search/building%20brand%20equity/building%20brand%20equity.warc?q=building+brand+equity&Area=Articles&Page=2&Tab=&DVals=&SourceOR=&DRange=&Filter=]
    "Building a #1 Rated Brand In Less Than A Decade"
    by Paul Rittenberg, ANA Magazine, 10.02, pp. 34-38
    (WARC Paper Precis: Since 1996, Fox News Channel has risen to become the US's #1 news-related TV channel. This case study describes how using CBBE (Customer-Based Brand Equity) procedures and the utilization of new approaches to brand measurement has enabled FNC and its sponsors to achieve unparalleled business success.)
    Given your age, experience and wisdom, I am surprised by your ageism and stereotypical commentary. I realize that you tried to redeem your commentary at the end with a wink to the "old folks" in the business. But it was too late in the game and your offense, too egregious in its nature.
    Once and for all, every US citizen and every US consumer counts regardless of age, gender, race, sexual orientation, news interest and political or religious affiliation. Everyone deserves to be served and to be satisfied.
    Happy New Year To All ! As January 6th Arrives, Let Real Epiphanies Be Ours in 2015 !! Onwards & Upwards !!!
    Warmly,
    Nick (Nicholas P. Schiavone, LLC)

  3. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, January 6, 2015 at 5:32 a.m.

    Hi Nick. I think that you may have misinterpreted by comments about the 25-54 "demo" and cable news. Actually, I think that Fox has been very astute in terms of the way it has geared its news and commentary programming and I have no problem at all with its success story in the ratings. My point was about the simplistic way demographics are used in TV time buying. Here we see a particular form of TV-----news-----being evaluated by its ability to attract an audience segment---25-54s----that does not represent its core audience, but is, in reality, a small and relatively insignificant part of its average audience delivery. It's almost as absurd as advertisers judging the value of daytime TV by the number of men the shows attract or gauging the impact of a children's show by how many adults watch it. As for older consumers, I think that advertisers have long missed the boat regarding their value and have worked on a number of consulting projects to help media demonstrate that very point.

  4. Nicholas Schiavone from Nicholas P. Schiavone, LLC, January 6, 2015 at 6:18 p.m.

    Thank you very much, Ed. I appreciate your cogent and calm response. It is an excellent clarification.
    I concur with almost all your assessments, except for the continued "stereotyping" of news programming and news demos. I derive most of my holistic understanding in these matters from the Media & News Pratice of the Pew Research Center as opposed to the simplistic ratings data tables and files delivered by Nielsen. Nonetheless, you have reminded me -- in a good way -- of the delightful observation made by H.L. Mencken, the "Sage of Baltimore": "Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong."
    Thanks again! Onwards & upwards!

Next story loading loading..