Week 40 of the 2002/03 Season (6/23-6/29/03)

Primetime:

Cable shattered records this week as it achieved its highest share level EVER in Prime, delivering a 55.0 HH share, outperforming Broadcast (7-Net) by a massive 18.3 points (largest gain ever). In addition, Cable’s delivery surpassed Broadcast’s by 10.6 million homes and its HH rating outshined by 9.9 points. Compared to year ago, Cable’s audience measurements experienced healthy gains while Broadcast remained on par overall as share level fell off only 3% to a 36.7 thanks to all of the reality programming being aired this summer.

Ad Supported Cable topped the 50+ share mark in Prime for the month of June 2003, delivering a 53.7 (second highest level ever on a monthly basis). Cable also, outperformed the Broadcast networks by 8.8 million homes; 8.3 HH rating points; and 14.8 share points. Thanks to reality programming, Broadcast’s seven net share grew 1.2 points from year ago for the month. This jump was fueled by Fox’s programming which experienced a 9% share gain.

In Second Quarter 2003, Ad Supported Cable topped the 50 share mark for the second time in history on a quarterly basis, delivering an amazing 51.2 HH share - 7.6 points above Broadcast’s level. In addition, Cable outperformed Broadcast seven nets by 4.7 million homes and 4.4 HH rating points. In comparison to last year’s level, cable’s share increased 1.4 points while Broadcast’s declined. In fact, five out of the seven nets experienced share losses this quarter v. same period a year ago with NBC being the clear driver. Cable’s 1.7 million household viewership gains this quarterly. Year ago was mainly driven by an influx of young adults as W18-24 viewership grew a healthy 9.3% and M18-24 delivery jumped up an amazing 10.8% from year ago. In contrast to cable, Broadcast experienced erosion with this demo as viewership fell 1.6% among M18-24. In addition to capturing the younger audience, cable also managed to experience healthy gains with older viewers as W50+ and M50+ grew 3.8% and 4.3%, respectively.

To date this season, Cable is outperforming Broadcast seven nets by 1.1 share points. Cable is delivering 31.1 million homes, garnering a 29.1 HH rating, and earning a 48.1 share. Compared to year ago, cable is experiencing healthy gains whereas Broadcast is down across all audience measures. The seven networks have lost 610,000 viewers to date and are experiencing significant rating and share losses compared to last year’s levels. NBC is the main driver of the share loss partly due to telecast’s of the Olympics last year.

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Total Day:

Ad Supported Cable delivered 18.0 million homes in the 40th week of the 02/03 Season, representing an increase of 900,000 viewers from last year on a Total Day basis. Cable’s household ratings increased 0.6 points from a year ago to 16.9 and the share increased by 0.7 points to end at 54.0. Cable’s share was once again greater than that of the Broadcast Networks (4 Net.), with the difference being a commanding 20.8 points. The broadcast networks were up in viewership and ratings, but suffered a decrease in share.

For this season, cable rose to 18.0 million homes, up 1.4 million homes from last year. Cable’s ratings increased by 1.2 points to end at 16.9 and its share rose to 50.7, an increase of 2.1 points from last year. The broadcast networks continued to experience declines from last year. It sustained losses across the board, as impressions fell by 31,000 homes, ratings declined by 0.2 to end at 12.7 and share decreased by 1.7 points to end at 38.0.

Cable, for the second quarter, finished with a strong lead over the broadcast networks. It ended with a 52.9 share, the highest on a quarterly basis to date, and was 17.3 points above Broadcast’s level. In the first week of the quarter, cable recorded its highest share to date, 56.2, on a weekly basis. Cable finished above 50.0 share points for every week in the second quarter.

Ratings were up 1.4 points to finish at 17.2, and share increased 2.0 points from last year. The Broadcast Networks experienced a slight increase in viewership and ratings in comparison to last year, and it saw its share decrease.

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Source: Nielsen Galaxy.