Cable TV News Viewership Slows In July, Fox News Keeps Lead
- by Wayne Friedman , August 1, 2019
Cable TV news networks’ viewership slowdown continues in July -- with Fox News Channel maintaining its overall lead.
Though Fox News posted virtually flat total viewership in daytime and programming programming, it sank in key adults 25-54 viewers that advertisers value.
Fox inched up 1% to a Nielsen-measured 2.44 million prime-time viewers, as well as a 1% gain in daytime viewers to 1.38 million. It was down 15% in adults 25-54 to 378,000; off 10% in daytime 25-54 viewers at 237,000.
MSNBC lost 10% in the month in total prime-time viewers to 1.5 million, and 7% off in daytime viewership to 852,000. The network was down 28% and 29% in prime time and daytime 25-54 viewers -- to 222,000 and 125,000.
CNN showed some of the same trends, losing 11% in prime time to 797,000 viewers; a 13% drop in daytime viewers to 557,000. In the 25-54 measure, it fell 32% in prime time to 201,000 and 32% in daytime to 131,000.
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Much of the current overall downward trend in cable news TV viewership occurred after the release of The Mueller Report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and obstruction of justice issues by the Trump Administration.
The top-rated prime-time shows in the month were: Fox’s “Hannity” (3.3 million viewers); Fox’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (3.2 million); Fox’s “The Ingraham Angle” (2.6 million); Fox’s “The Five” (2.5 million), and MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” (2,487,000).
Wayne, one has to laugh at the continued use of the 25-54 "demo" as the "key" viewer group for news audiences as this "key" group accounts for only 15% of the cable news average minute viewership. The real "key" group is 55+ which accounts for well over half of the viewers. I'm not blaming you on this; rather it's a continuing absurdity---established long ago---of using conglomerate demos like 25-54 as if they represent a targeting metric. Nonsense. All they represent in the case of TV news is an audience guarantee metric, nothing more.
Ed, you are so right. You know, it could be worse if it were 18-49 which seems so out of date for most CPG products.
I tend to agree with Ed. Think about this in another way. At 25, a women could have her college degree, be married and have one or two kids. By 54, she could be a grandmother. I would think a age group of 22 or 23 (getting out of college) and then 40 would be the higher end. (kids closer to high school years.) Then add 41 to 54 for empty nesters.
As I tell my students, 25 - 54 includes you and your parents. When was the last time you thought the same way about anything?