Ad-supported cable television recorded its highest-ever third quarter primetime and total day viewership levels, while the collective audience share of the broadcast networks continued to shrink.
According to Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau analysis of Nielsen data for the 14-week period from 6/26/00-10/01/00, ad-supported cable's average primetime U.S. household delivery climbed to 25.2
million (+4.7% versus the same period last year), rating increased 3.3% to 24.9, and share grew by almost 1% to 44.3. On a total day basis for the third quarter, ad-supported cable's delivery rose
6.4% to almost 14 million homes, rating climbed 4.6% to 13.7, and share rose 2.5% to 44.8.
In contrast, collective share of primetime viewing to the seven broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX,
UPN, WB, PAX) declined 1.2% to 47.5, narrowing the gap with ad-supported cable to only three points, according to the CAB. Similarly, on a total day basis for the 14-week period, the collective share
of the affiliates of ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX dropped 3.5% to 42.7-a record low for the quarter. Cable's total day share for 3Q '00 exceeded broadcast's by more than three points.
At the same time, the
national ad-supported cable TV networks' websites collectively recorded more than one billion page views in August, 67% more than the total page views of the measured Web sites of other major media
(broadcast network TV, radio networks, magazines and newspapers) combined.
According to the latest CAB tracking of Internet usage based on data from Nielsen//NetRatings, ad-supported cable
websites' 1.009 billion page views in August represented a 10% increase over July; while aggregate page views to the measured sites of broadcast networks, radio networks, magazines and newspapers were
down 1.3% (613 million views in July versus 605 million views in August). Ad-supported cable Web sites' unique (unduplicated) audience of 29.2 million in August was up 4% versus July and virtually
equal to the total unique audiences of the other major media websites combined. In contrast, decreases in unique audience were recorded by the measured sites of radio networks (-9%), magazines (-10%)
and broadcast network TV (-3%).