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Week 50 of the 2003/04 Season (8/30-9/5/04)

Primetime:

During the 50th week of the 2003/2004 Broadcast Season and 2004 Republican Convention week, Cable captured 59.6% of total TV viewing and outperformed Broadcast 7 nets by a remarkable 30.0 share points. Compared to last year, Cable's delivery grew 1.8 million homes and its rating jumped 1.3 points. Broadcast conversely experienced considerable losses across all audience measures partially due to coverage of the Republican National Convention counting as non-programming minutes.

Week after week Ad Supported Cable continues to command 57% of total TV viewing this Third Quarter 2004. Broadcast on the other hand continues to struggle with its reality programming as it only captures 36% of total TV viewing. Compared to year ago, Cable experiences healthy gains whereas Broadcast levels have fallen to record lows.

With season winding down – only two weeks to go, Cable continues to demand more than half of total TV viewing to date. In addition, Cable continues to outpace Broadcast week after week and on a season basis Broadcast continues to fall 7.6 share points behind Cable.

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Total Day:

Ad-Supported Cable delivered 20.7 million homes in the 50th week of the 03/04 Season, representing an increase of 1.7 million viewers from last year on a Total Day basis. Cable's household ratings were up by 1.4 point from last year to end at 18.9 and the share was up by 4.2 points to end at 57.9. Cable's share was once again greater than that of the Broadcast Networks (4 Net.), with the difference being a solid 26.4 points. The Broadcast networks saw a decrease in all audience measures.

Cable, to date, in the third quarter, has a very strong lead over the Broadcast networks. It ended with a 56.4 share, 23.3 points above Broadcast's level. Ratings increased by 1.2 to end at 18.3, and share increased 2.3 points from last year. The Broadcast Networks have experienced an increase in delivery and ratings, and have suffered a decrease in share.

For this season, cable rose to 19.2 million homes, up 1.1 million homes from last year. Cable's ratings increased by 0.8 points to end at 17.7 and its share rose to 53.0, an increase of 1.7 points from last year. The Broadcast networks experienced an increase in impressions, ratings remained constant and share declined by 0.5 points to end at 36.6.

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Source: Nielsen Galaxy.