• by Wayne Friedman , June 8, 2016

Total day commercial TV ratings for the broadcast networks continued to show declines this past season -- with even lower results when not including sports programming.

Moffett Nathanson Research, from Nielsen analysis, said broadcast networks witnessed a 5% decline in the 2015-2016 TV season (September to May) to 1.24 million 18-49 viewers in total day average commercial ratings plus three days of time shifting (C3).

CBS gained 4% to 1.26 million, largely due to the inclusion of the Super Bowl.

On the flip side, NBC was down 9% to 1.1 million viewers -- due to unfavorable comparisons to a year ago when it had the Super Bowl.

Fox was down 6% to 2.5 million 18-49 viewers. The Fox network doesn’t program outside of prime time. 

ABC sank 11% to 989,000 18-49 viewers.

Taking out all sports, broadcast network shows lost even more in C3 -- down 7% to 1.01 million 18-49 viewers. CBS fared the best -- losing 2% to 981,000 18-49 viewers -- while Fox fell 4% to 1.6 million, NBC lost 7% to 980,000, and ABC dropped 13% to 929,000.

For the 2015-2016 season, the top four broadcasters’ sports programming grabbed the dominant share of 18-49 C3 gross rating points with a 34%. This is up from a 29% share a year ago.

This year, drama and news programming were each at a 17% share. Reality and comedy programming each had a 6% share -- with late night at 4% and kids programming at 1%.