• by December 1, 2004

SWEPT UNDER THE RUG - Normally we try to ignore all the hype and network spin that surround Nielsen's ratings sweeps. Who's on first? Who cares? Even if the quarterly snapshots were a relevant measure of network performance, agencies don't buy on the basis of quarterly prime-time averages and advertisers certainly don't run their ads that way. Moreover, the sweeps themselves are an artifact, with networks and stations trotting out their biggest guns in an effort to, well, outgun each other. As far as we're concerned, they're just shooting themselves in the foot.

We don't' mean to take anything away from CBS, which has done an incredible job this season, and for the past several. And displacing NBC from the November sweeps throne is icing on the cake of what's been a wonderful ride for the folks at Black Rock. But from a media planning point of view, it's pretty much "so what?" But there was another far less trumpeted milestone achieved during November that, while no more relevant than CBS' claim from a media planning standpoint, is nonetheless important from a symbolic one.

Our first hint of this came early Wednesday when we got a teaser email from a public relations executive noting: "Guess who the real sweeps winner was? Hint: not CBS. Second hint: Third time in a row."

The fact that the PR guy happened to work for the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau should have been a giveaway, but as most readers already know, the Riff is a little slow on the take. That, of course, was before he forward a link to a CAB analysis of the November sweeps purporting that "Viewers Flock To Ad-Supported Cable During First Half Of November 2004 Sweeps." The analysis, which is based on the first two weeks of the sweeps, shows ad-supported cable - as an entity - picking up 3.3 million viewers vs. the same period a year ago. During the same period, the broadcast networks lost a total of 1.1 million viewers.

Not surprisingly, those trends hold up across all the major demos, especially among younger viewers who tend to go for cable's edgier programming. "Teens and persons 18-24 demonstrate largest percentage gains to date with viewership up 10.6% and 14.9%, respectively," finds the CAB analysis, which concludes, "Broadcast pretty much remains on par among teens but demonstrates some gains among women 18-24 thanks to airings of ABC's 'Desperate Housewives' and CBS' 'CSI' -top two rated programs, respectively."