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.
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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.