Week 5 of the 2003/04 Season (10/20-10/26/03)

Primetime:

In its fifth week of the new Broadcast season, Ad Supported Cable picked up momentum as viewership grew more than a million homes and share shot up about two share points from year ago. In addition, the gap between Cable and Broadcast continued to narrow this week, recording a 7.5 share point discrepancy v. 11.3 year ago. Cable experienced healthy gains across all of its audience measurements this week whereas Broadcast’s viewership eroded more than 1.4 million homes and share fell 2.2 points to a 53.6 level. For the past three weeks, Fox has experienced considerable gains thanks solely to MLB playoff games but that came to a halt this week as Broadcast’s erosion was fueled by Fox’s share loss. In fact, ABC’s & CBS’s share gains this week couldn’t offset the losses experienced by three out of the total seven Broadcast nets.

Ad Supported Cable tied the Big 4 Broadcast networks in primetime viewership for the month of October. In spite of Broadcast’s new season programming and Fox’s baseball, Cable managed to deliver 30.8 million homes – tying the Big 4. In addition, Cable’s delivery grew 1.8 million homes from year ago and share jumped up 1.8 points to a 46.2. Conversely, Broadcast continued to experience declines as viewership fell about a million homes and share declined more than two share points in prime. Fox was the lone gainer this month as six out of the total seven net’s share level dropped off v. year ago.

As the new 03-04 season continues to unfold - Cable manages to capture 47% of total TV viewing. In fact, the spread between Cable and Broadcast has decreased to only six share points. In addition, Cable has experienced significant gains across all of its audience measurements from year ago –delivering more than two more million homes; +1.4 HH rating points; and +2.1 HH share points.

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Total Day:

Ad Supported Cable delivered 17.7 million homes in the 5th week of the 03/04 Season, representing an increase of 246,000 viewers from last year on a Total Day basis. Cable’s household ratings remained constant at 16.4 and the share increased by 0.5 points to end at 49.1. Cable’s share was once again greater than that of the Broadcast Networks (4 Net.), with the difference being a solid 8.3 points. The broadcast networks were down across all audience measures.

Cable, to date, in the fourth quarter, has a strong lead over the broadcast networks. It ended with a 49.2 share, 8.9 points above Broadcast’s level. Ratings were up 0.7 points to finish at 16.3, and share increased 1.3 points from last year. The Broadcast Networks have experienced a slight increase in viewership and ratings, while share has declined slightly.

For this season, cable rose to 17.7 million homes, up 1.1 million homes from last year. Cable’s ratings increased by 0.7 points to end at 16.3 and its share rose to 49.3, an increase of 1.4 points from last year. The broadcast networks experienced an increase in impressions and ratings, while share declined by 0.3 points to end at 40.1.

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Source: Nielsen Galaxy.