Cable News Networks' Impeachment Hearings: Fewer TV Commercial Airings, Higher Ratings

Non-stop daytime TV airings of impeachment proceedings caused cable news networks to air dramatically fewer TV commercials during much of the three days of hearings.

Cable news networks ran virtually non-stop, no-advertising content during impeachment hearings  -- anywhere from 5 to 7 hours -- on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

MSNBC, for example, witnessed national/regional TV airings of commercials sinking on those days this past week, according to iSpot.tv. Tuesday had 339 airings, Wednesday had 269 and Thursday had 348.

During a recent 30-day period, MSNBC’s total weekday average of TV commercial airings was between 550 and 750 commercials per day.

Fox News Channel also dipped substantially -- with 371 commercial airings on Tuesday, 391 on Wednesday, before rising to 528 on Thursday.

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During the previous month, Fox averaged between 650 and 750 commercial airings per day.

CNN also witnessed a substantial drop --  with 561 airings on Tuesday, 523 on Wednesday, and 642 on Thursday.

CNN had been averaging between 850 and 920 commercial airings per day.

At the same time, the three big cable news networks posted strong daytime viewership -- up a collective 8% on Wednesday versus Tuesday, for example --  with 6.54 million viewers versus 6.06 million.

Overall, daytime viewership for cable news networks airing the impeachments hearings -- which began about a week ago -- are up anywhere from 40% to 45% versus previous daytime periods.

 
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