Big Cable News Nets' Q2 Prime-Time/Total Day Ratings Sink 40%, Fox News Maintains Lead
- by Wayne Friedman , June 29, 2021
Cable TV news networks continue to witness big viewing declines in the second quarter versus the soaring political and pandemic news environment of a year ago -- down nearly 40% in prime-time and total day ratings, as measured by Nielsen.
Total prime-time viewing fell 38% in the second three months of this year to a collective 4.57 million average viewers.Total day viewing also dropped 38% to 2.7 million average viewers.
Fox News Channel continues to maintain its lead among the three major 24-hour cable TV news networks and among U.S. cable networks overall -- dropping 39% versus a year ago to 2.2 million average prime-time viewers. It also lost 44% to a 1.2 million average total day viewing.MSNBC came in at second place among all cable networks, falling at lesser levels -- off 27% to 1.46 million prime-time viewers and dropping 30% to 847,000 total day viewers.
CNN fell at similar or steeper levels than Fox or MSNBC -- sinking 49% in prime time to 914,000 viewers and 45% in total day viewing, with 654,000.
Wayne, it would be intereting to see what the daily and weekly reach was for the various cable news channels. Obviously it's a lot bigger than the averge commercial minute "viewer" numbers you cited but I wonder if the reach levels are decliing as fast as the frequencies. My guess is that people are fed up with the endless BS and bickering and are still tuning in---but spending less time with these channels.