• by September 18, 2000

By Anya Khait

The national cable TV networks' success in creating many of the top brands in the communications business has carried over to their websites, which now account for the majority of visits to all Nielsen-measured sites belonging to media organizations. According to a newly-initiated Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau tracking of Internet usage based on data from Nielsen//NetRatings, ad-supported cable commanded 60% of all media website page views in July (908 million views out of 1.52 billion) versus the measured sites of broadcast TV networks, radio networks, magazines and major market newspapers.

In addition, ad-supported cable websites had a unique (unduplicated) audience of 26.1 million in July, virtually equaling the combined online audience of the other four media. The average time per person spent with cable websites was 28 minutes - exceeding newspaper sites by almost seven minutes.

July's Top 10 ad-supported cable network websites in terms of unique audience size were: msnbc.com; weather.com; espg.go.com; cnn.com; eonline.com; mtv.com; nick.com; cartoonnetwork.com; discovery.com; and oxygen.com. In terms of page views, the Top 10 sites in July were: espn.go.com; cnn.com; nick.com; msnbc.com; cartoonnetwork.com; weather.com; cnbc.com; mtv.com; foodtv.com and nickjr.com. In terms of time per person spent with a website, the Top 10 cable websites were: cnbc.com; espn.go.com; cartoonnetwork.com; nick.com; cnnsi.com; cnn.com; bet.com; nickjr.com; foodtv.com; and comedycentral.com. The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, in conjunction with Nielsen//NetRatings, measured a comprehensive list of all media websites and, for the first time, allowed sites to be categorized by media groups. This is the first in what will be a continuing examination by CAB of cable's growing presence on the Internet. Specifically, media website usage will be tracked on a regular basis with exclusive data provided by Nielsen//NetRatings.