The 2012 Olympics were a big news story, but they didn’t make much of a dent in the cable network ranker.
Fox News was the top cable news channel, and was the number three ad-supported cable channel overall in primetime with 1.69 million viewers, behind USA and TNT. In total day FNC placed fifth overall with 1.04 million viewers. MSNBC, which had some Olympics programming during the day, averaged 25th in primetime and 27th in total day with 706,000 and 437,000 viewers, respectively.In primetime that put he channel on par with VH1 and BET. CNN placed 38th in primetime and 36th in total day with 360,000 and 301,000 viewers, respectively. In prime CNN was sandwiched between Nat Geo Channel and the Game Show Network.
HLN was 41st in primetime and 44th in total day with 294,000 and 222,000 viewers, respectively. Current TV was 92nd in primetime and 93rd in total day with 28,000 and 24,000 viewers, respectively.
Among the business networks: CNBC, which was the official boxing channel for NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Games, placed 51st in primetime and total day, averaging 200,000 and 164,000 viewers, respectively. Fox Business Network was 87th in primetime and 82nd in total day with 51,000 and 50,000 viewers, respectively. Bloomberg TV hasn’t been rated since it launched back in the mid-90’s.
The full ranker is below.