• by Wayne Friedman , June 23, 2016

While sports networks may claim strong live program viewing -- thus commanding premium pricing from advertisers -- they aren’t alone: Many non-sports channels also have high live programming viewing.

ESPN scores 93% of all its viewing as live viewing when it comes to prime-time programming, with 92% live viewing for total day, according to TiVo Research/Media TRAnalytics survey of first quarter of this year.

A number of other cable networks also rang up 90% plus scores. This includes TBS, CNN, History, Food Network, each scoring 91% in live total day viewing.

In prime time, 90% of TBS viewing was live, with sister network, CNN at 89%. Next was History at 88%. USA, Fox News Channel, HGTV, was at 87% for live prime-time viewing.

The study also showed cable networks scoring high levels of time-shifting (through three days after live programming) as part of their overall viewing: MSNBC (19%); Discovery (15%); USA Network and Fox News (each with 13%); HGTV and Food Network (12%); and CNN (11%).

Overall, in prime time, cable networks pull in 88% of its viewing on a live basis; with broadcast networks at 72%, according to TiVo Research/Media TRAnalytics.

TiVo’s data comes from measuring 30,000 anonymous homes out of 350,000 TiVo subscribers from second-by-second set-top box data.