This is a gain over the second quarter of 2007, when cable led with a 54% share to broadcast's 46% share. During the last presidential election, the second-quarter 2004, cable and broadcast news each took 50% of total TV news viewers.
In the battle among the cable news channels, Fox News still maintains its dominant lead. But CNN and MSNBC have improved, according to analysis from Turner Broadcasting and Nielsen Media Research.
In the second quarter of this year versus a year ago, CNN is up 11% to an average 179,000 in total day, and 66% higher to 302,000 in prime time among key 25-54 news viewers. MSNBC grew 26% in prime time with an average 150,000 25-54 viewers in total day and 272,000 25-54 viewers in prime, an 89% rise.
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Still, Fox News strongly leads overall--now grabbing 880,000 total day viewers, a 9% gain over a year ago. In prime time, Fox still has a massive 1.6 million total viewers--a 9% gain over a year ago--and a 64% advantage over its nearest competitor, CNN, which had 978,000 viewers.
In the key 25-54 viewer demo in prime time, Fox maintains a lead of 346,000 viewers. It was the only cable news channel to drop versus a year ago, although a mere 1%.
During the Kerry/Bush race in 2004, adults 25-54 fled broadcast evening news programs for cable coverage, too.
In the second quarter of 2008, the three nightly news telecasts are all down by double-digit decreases versus the last presidential election--with CBS' "CBS Evening News" down the most at 27%. "ABC World News" is off 18% and "NBC Nightly News" dropped 17%.