Broadcasting & Cable
Perennial cable news leader, Fox News Channel finished the third quarter 2009 up among total viewers and news’ target demographic of 25-54 year olds. FNC averaged 2.25 million total viewers in primetime (Monday through Sunday), for an uptick of 2% year-to-year, with 583,000 in the demo for a gain of 5%, according to Nielsen Media Research.
FNC was the third-ranked basic cable network among total viewers behind ESPN and USA. CNN came in at number 20 while MSNBC was 25th.
Led by “The O’Reilly Factor” (which averaged 3.3 million viewers), the network also had all ten of the top ten cable news programs among total viewers.
CNN finished the third quarter ahead of MSNBC in primetime among total viewers and the demo, topping MSNBC by 19% in total viewers (949,000 to 795,000) and 5% in the demo (288,000 to 275,000). MSNBC beat CNN in the primetime demo for the month of September averaging 284,000 viewers to CNN’s 245,000. More…