Atlanta Journal-Constitution - January 6, 2004
Fox fattens lead on CNN in peak year for cable news
By CAROLINE WILBERT The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
News from Iraq made 2003 a good year for ratings at cable news networks -- and it was especially good at Fox News.
Fox, the cable ratings leader for the past two years, widened its lead over Atlanta-based CNN. Fox averaged 1.02 million viewers at any given moment, a 53 percent increase from the year before. CNN averaged 665,000, a 24 percent increase.
Fox grew the most in prime time, averaging 1.7 million viewers for the 8 to 11 p.m. time slot, a 45 percent increase. CNN averaged 1.1 million, a 22 percent increase.
Fox also grew slightly more than CNN among 25- to 54-year-olds, a key demographic for selling advertising.
Though Fox has become the ratings leader, Atlanta-based CNN still enjoys higher advertising revenue and fatter profits.
CNN executives found some good news in the year-end ratings data. The network continues to attract the largest total number of viewers. That's because more people check in briefly with CNN, while Fox viewers tend to watch significantly longer.
CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson said the network is benefitting from an overall increase in viewership of cable news vs. broadcast.
In 2003, the average American household watched 3 hours and 6 minutes of cable news per week -- an increase of 41 minutes over 2002, according to CNN's analysis of Nielsen Media Research numbers. At the same time, the average household watched 2 hours and 19 minutes of broadcast news programming, including magazine shows -- a decrease of two minutes from the year before.
"It shows a continuing trend of viewers migrating from broadcast to cable for news," Robinson said.
The analysis, however, is somewhat of an apples-to-oranges comparison because a broadcast network like ABC airs three hours of news on a typical day, compared with a cable news network's 24 hours. Broadcast newscasts attract much larger audiences than even the top-rated shows on cable.
MSNBC, already a distant third among cable news networks, slipped in most categories. For instance, it averaged total day viewership of 320,000 viewers. That was a 22 percent increase over 2002 -- a smaller gain than competitors enjoyed. MSNBC is expected this week to announce a new prime-time show featuring Georgia native Deborah Norville as the host.
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The numbers Viewership* 2002 2003 % increase Fox 667,000 1,023,000 53 percent CNN 536,000 665,000 24 percent MSNBC 263,000 320,000 22 percent
Prime time** Fox 1,179,000 1,706,000 45 percent CNN 898,000 1,095,000 22 percent MSNBC 360,000 443,000 23 percent
*Average viewers at a given time of day **8 to 11 p.m. Source: Nielsen Media Research