• by David Kaplan , April 28, 2005

While icy winter winds helped put people in front of the television this winter for more hours, ad-supported cable remained flat from the fourth quarter of 2004 through the first quarter of 2005, a report released Wednesday by Havas' MPG said.

Still, as a consolation for cable, year-to-date, ad-supported cable gained three points versus a year ago, while broadcast continued to decline in viewers, said Nina Kanter, director, communications analysis for MPG.

"Television usage increased slightly from 4Q04, following seasonal patterns," Kanter said. "Overall, household tuning was up almost two hours on a Total Day basis. Furthermore, share of viewing remained relatively stable in total day and prime time compared to the fourth quarter. However, ad-supported cable gained three share points in both dayparts compared to last year, season-to-date. But these are really minor shifts."

As for the cable nets that did particularly well, Nickelodeon, Nick-at-Nite, and TNT retained their fourth-quarter positioning as number one among homes for women ages 18-49 and adults 25-54, and adults 35-64, respectively.

"Also, ESPN benefited from Sunday Night Football telecasts--and then once the season's over in January, those viewers shifted to TNT," added Molly Walker, senior research analyst for MPG in Boston.

While Nickelodeon and MTV dominated the top 15 among households and adults ages 18-49, respectively, USA Network's Monk took the lead among adult households. Additionally, Spike's WWE Raw Zone garnered high ratings among adults ages 18-49, Kanter said. "When WWE wrestling moves to USA in the fourth quarter of this year, Spike will perhaps have to look at more original programming or off-net series to fill the void."

Several new series joined the Top 15 among adults 18-49. MTV added "The Ashlee Simpson Show" and "My Super Sweet Sixteen," while the Sci-Fi Channel's recently launched "Battlestar Galactica" and "Stargate Atlantis" also made appearances, the report noted.

As for how these numbers influence the upfront, their colleague, Carrie Drinkwater, vice president and account director for MPG Arnold, Boston, indicated that it didn't matter much when placing clients' ads.

"Each network has positioned itself in its own way, and many of them can be a lot of different things to a lot of different people in terms of clients' needs," Drinkwater said. "Certain clients need points efficiently, and others need added value. You look at networks like Comedy Central, where we've bought for everyone from Royal Caribbean to Auto Zone to Volkswagen--it just touches everything in its own unique way to provide these clients added value."

As for how these networks add value, Drinkwater pointed to a partnership with the Discovery Networks and MPG client Royal Caribbean.

"Discovery creates custom programming for some of our clients," she said. "They've done shows about Royal's cruise lines. Or A&E has proposed integrating some of [MPG client] Auto Zone's products into some of their and History Channel's shows. Comedy Central has taken "Blue Collar TV," a really strong, important property, and created a marathon for them. I don't think there's anybody that has the ability to dominate the marketplace as opposed to years ago. We use cable for targeting and frequency, and we use broadcast for reach. We look for the quality of the audience and the programming. The balance between cable viewers and broadcast viewers doesn't enter into the discussion much."