Cable's attempt for a fall land grab from the broadcast networks has so far come up fruitless. Prime-time viewership of ad-supported cable networks as a whole declined year-over-year from 53.1
million viewers in 2008 to 49.9 million in 2009, per a Horizon Media ratings analysis. When you take into account the effect of last year's election and economic crash on ratings for cable news,
cable this year is basically flat.
Some cable networks fared better than others. Food Network was up 26%, A&E was up 14% and TLC was up 12%. In contrast, Lifetime was down 25%, TNT
dropped 24% and TBS was down 13% compared to last September.
Brad Adgate, senior vice president at Horizon, says broadcast didn't benefit from cable's doldrums. Broadcasters averaged less
than 40 million viewers for premiere-week (beginning Sept. 14) after bringing in nearly 42 million last year.
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