Where You Are: Home > CAB Research > '02/03 Weekly Audience Measures

Week 1 of the 2002/03 Season (9/23-9/29/02)

Primetime:

In Premiere week, Broadcast delivered a 52.5 share, down 0.6 of a point from last year's premiere week. Broadcast’s delivery and rating also experienced declines from year ago levels. Overall, the average Household Rating of all 57 Broadcast shows that had their season debut this week were down 3% compared to last year’s premiere’s. In Premiere week, CBS and WB were the big winners with shares growing 7% and 41%, respectively. In spite of Broadcast’s premiere programming, Ad Supported Cable managed to record a slight increase in Primetime Share.

Third Quarter 2002 marked a milestone in cable history as it was the first quarter to surpass the 50 share mark, delivering a 51.9 share. Cable delivered 30.6 million homes and garnered a 28.9 household rating this quarter. Compared to a year ago, Cable was up 2.0 million homes, rating grew 1.3 points and share jumped 3 points while Broadcast (7-net) experienced erosion among all audience measures.

Download Primetime Spreadsheet

Total Day:

Ad Supported Cable rose to 16.2 million homes this week, an increase of 152,000 viewers from last year on a Total Day basis. Cable’s ratings remained constant at 15.2, and the share increased 0.6 points to finish at 47.7. Cable’s share was once again greater than that of the Broadcast Networks (4 Net.), with the difference being 7.3 points.

Cable, to date, in the third quarter, ended with a 51.9 share, 16.7 points above Broadcast’s level. Cable ratings increased 0.9 points and its share rose an impressive 3.3 points from last year. The Broadcast Networks have experienced a decline in viewership.

Overall, the third quarter was a great one for ad-supported cable. It reached the 50 share mark eleven times. The share for the third quarter, which ended at 51.9, is the highest share for ad-supported cable in a quarter. In the first week of the third quarter, ad-supported cable reached its all-time high for share.

Download Total Day Spreadsheet

Source: Nielsen Galaxy.