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Week 35 of the 2002/03 Season (5/19-5/25/03)

Primetime:

Cable outperformed Broadcast in the 35th week of the Broadcast season, delivering a 48.1 share. Cable outdistanced Broadcast’s viewership by 516,000 viewers as May sweeps winded down. Compared to year ago, Cable’s viewership grew 1.6 million homes; household rating increased 1.2 points; and share grew slightly. In addition, Broadcast experienced gains as well as delivery grew 1.6 million homes thanks mainly to Fox’s telecasts of “American Idol” as the networks’ viewership jumped 57% for the week. Fox managed to offset ABC’s, UPN’s, WB’s, and PAX Nets losses.

For the May 2003 Sweeps period, the household share gap between Broadcast and Ad Supported Cable narrowed, practically halved, as Broadcast outperformed Ad Supported Cable by 2.6 share points this sweeps period v. 5.9 points a year ago. Compared to last year, Cable experienced healthy gains as household delivery grew 1.5 million homes, rating increased 1.1 points and the share jumped up 1.5 points to a 46.9 level. Broadcast on the other hand, experienced erosion as all household audience measurements fell from year ago with share down almost two share points. Share declines were experienced by five out of the total seven nets but NBC and WB were the clear drivers with household share losses of 14% and 16%, respectively.

For Second Quarter 2003 to date, Cable is outperforming Broadcast’s seven collective household share level by 3.3 points. Cable’s household delivery is 2.0 million above Broadcast’s and its household rating is surpassing Broadcast’s by 1.9 points. Compared to year ago, Cable is up a healthy 2.1 share points while Broadcast continues to erode. Six out of the total seven networks are down in household share with Fox being the only sole gainer this Quarter thanks to telecasts of “American Idol”.

To date this season, Cable is experiencing healthy gains vs year ago delivering 31.1 million homes, garnering a 29.1 HH rating, and earning a 47.5 share. Broadcast on the other hand is down across all audience measures. The seven networks have lost 825,000 viewers so far and are experiencing significant rating and share losses compared to last year’s levels. While four out of the seven nets are down in share, NBC is the clear 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 17.4 million homes this 35th week of the 02/03 Season, representing an increase of 1.6 million viewers from last year on a Total Day basis. Cable’s household ratings increased 1.3 points from year ago to a 16.3 and the share jumped 1.4 points to a 51 share level. Cable’s share outperformed Broadcast significantly by over delivering by 13.8 points. Compared to year ago, the Broadcast networks experienced minimal gains thanks greatly to Fox’s telecasts of “American Idol.” Fox was the only network to experience an increase this week vs year ago.

Cable outperformed Broadcast by an amazing 12.4 share points during May Sweeps. Compared to year ago, Cable experienced significant audience measurement gains across the board while Broadcast saw minimal growth.

Cable, to date, in the second quarter, has a commanding lead over the broadcast networks. It ended with a 52.7 share, 16.2 points above Broadcast’s level. Ratings were up 1.7 points to finish at 17.3, and share increased 2.9 points from last year. The Broadcast Networks have experienced a slight increase in viewership in comparison to last year, while ratings have remained constant and share has declined.

For this season, cable rose to 18.0 million homes, up 1.5 million homes from last year. Cable’s ratings increased by 1.2 points to end at 16.9 and its share rose to 50.3, an increase of 2.3 points from last year. The broadcast networks continued to experience declines from last year. It sustained losses across the board, as impressions fell by 96,000 homes, ratings declined by 0.3 to end at 12.9 and share decreased by 1.9 points to end at 38.5.

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Source: Nielsen Galaxy.