Posted on 10/13/2005 2:24:53 PM PDT by new yorker 77
Audience
In the 1990s, cable news networks replaced network television for many Americans as the primary source for breaking news, just as in the 1960s television supplanted newspapers. In the new millennium, a broadband-enabled, always-on Internet threatens to usurp those cable news networks. The recent tsunami disaster, The New York Times noted, marked the first time significant numbers of Americans turned to blogs for breaking news.
Where does that leave network news? In 2004, the decline in evening news audience continued, as did declines in prime-time magazines. Morning news, in contrast, continued to see its audiences grow. And despite the decision to abdicate coverage of much of the prime-time proceedings at the nominating conventions, on election night November 2004, twice as many people still turned to the old commercial networks as did cable for the results.
Nightly Newscasts
The discussion of network news audience trends usually begins with the signature nightly newscasts.
They are the most famous news programs, and the audience declines here are the most dramatic in TV news. Between their peak in November 1969 and 2003, as we noted last year, ratings for those programs fell by 59%. Was there any sign in 2004 that the trend was abating?1
The answer appears to be no, though 2005 offers new possibilities.
Television audiences are counted in numerous ways. The most familiar is ratings, which count the number of all television sets in the U.S. tuned to a given program. Share is the percentage of just those sets in use at a given time tuned in to a program. Viewership is ratings converted into the number of people actually estimated to be watching, since two or more people are often watching a given set.
Between November 2003 and November 2004, ratings for nightly news fell 2% and share fell 5%.2
In absolute numbers, that means that in November 2004, 28.8 million viewers watched the three network evening newscasts, half a million less than in November the year before. That is a 45% decline from the 52.1 million people who watched the nightly newscasts in 1980, the year CNN began.3
The numbers translate into 2004 ratings of 20.2, down from 20.6 the year before. They represent a 38 share, down from 40 in 2003.4
It's worth noting that a rating point (1% of American homes with a TV set) implies many more people in 2004 than it did in 1969. With population increases and demographic trends like more single heads of households, there are many more homes than 35 years before. Thus the decline in viewership is not nearly as steep as the decline in ratings.
Evening News Viewership, All Networks November 1980 to November 2004
Source: Nielsen Media unpublished data, November - November
In 1980, the three commercial network nightly news broadcasts had a combined 37% rating, and a 75% share. And at their historic peak, in 1969, they had a 50% rating and an 85% share. The November 2004 figures mean that ratings have fallen almost 59.6 % since 1969, and 45.4% sinc1e 1980. Share has fallen 55.3% since 1969 and 49.3% since 1980.
Evening News Ratings November 1980 to November 2004
Source: Nielsen Media Research unpublished data, www.nielsenmedia.com Ratings taken for month of November.
.... Continued...
In absolute numbers, that means that in November 2004, 28.8 million viewers watched the three network evening newscasts, half a million less than in November the year before. That is a 45% decline from the 52.1 million people who watched the nightly newscasts in 1980, the year CNN began.
28.8 MILLION in November 2004.
THE PLUMMET CONTINUES IN 2005:
NEW YORK -- October 11, 2005...For the week, "Nightly News" attracted 8.714 million viewers, 6% (+464,000) more than ABC "World News Tonight's" 8.250 million, and a 33% (+2,180,000) advantage over CBS "Evening News'" 6.534 million.
Link: http://nbcumv.com/news/release_detail.nbc/news-20051011000000-nbcnightlynewsrtg.html
23.5 MILLION VIEWERS LAST WEEK
There's still network newscasts?
I haven't watched a nightly newscast or news magazine in probably 10 years.
Perhaps if the networks move farther left it will help.
It takes me a few minutes to even figure out where ABC/CBS/NBC are on my TV anymore.
"We're sinking faster than Homer Simpson's sofa."
Part of market decline was inevitable due to the internet, but a large part of the decline, IMO, is due to the major networks continuing to act like an oligopoly when they're clearly not. They wanted to continue to pander to their liberal base while ramming their political agenda down the throats of everyone else. The problem is 'everyone else' had somewhere else to go, so they did.
I have placed all these networks on Parental Block.
I unblock them for Football.
Now this is series! Coming soon in HDTV - crap in high definition, secure your HDTV so you can see the pimples on their faces!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
Gee, could this be related to getting local returns on those stations? Hmmmm...no, that would be too logical.
It seems the basic 3 (ABC, NBC, CBS), Fox and WB started their season openers earlier than in past years.
In previous recent years, their new season openers began as late as October. This year, they were opening in early September.
Maybe they are feeling the pressure and realizing they can't just show reruns and expect people to continue watching.
Some of the cable channels have some good original series, even though their 'season' is typically much shorter (6-10 weeks) than the broadcast networks' season.
Apparently you are in good company. If you notice by the graphs...there was a spike after 9-11 and then people gave up. Nobody buys into tbeir biased b.s. when they can search the net and have the days news at their fingertips along with CNN,FOX,MSNBC,Headline News in a matter of 5 mins they are all caught up when they need to be.
Network News is old hat and stale. I mean just look at the number of news resources one can go to during any given time a day?
Yahoo.com, Google.com,Brietbart.com, AllHeadlineNews.com,FreeRepublic.com I mean for real...does one need to wait til 6 pm to hear a distorted view on the news when we can get the story as it is happening in real time?
If we don't find any of it to have the ring of truth, it isn't even entertaining. Very boring. Tedious. Of course, the people that watch it enjoy the sense of righteous indignation they get , and we listen to Michael Savage when we want that.
The funny thing is how many more millions of Americans are there now compaired to when network news was at its peak.
I just watched the 5 o'clock news on channel 5, Fox, New York City. They did a very long segment on umbrella etiquette, a lot of rain coverage and too many traffic reports.
If a linear trend continues, in ten years there will be less than 20 million people watching the news, out of a population of about 350 million. That's like 6%.
I haven't watched one in 11 years.
This might actually be the largest loss of customers for any product in history over a 30 year period. It is compounded by the fact that households with televisions and televisions in households grew rapidly during this time-frame. These companies have destroyed billions of dollars of in assets.
Strange as this may seem, it is "journalists and entertainers" like Rush Limbaugh that these companies SURRENDERED THEIR PROFITS AND REVENUES TO.
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