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Week 27 of the 2002/03 Season (3/24-3/30/03)

Primetime:

In its final week of First Quarter 2003, Ad Supported Cable continued to reach new highs, delivering a 54.0 share level– its highest share this 02/03 season. Cable also managed to outperform the Broadcast seven nets share level by 11.2 share points, mainly due to the war coverage by the cable news networks. Compared to a year ago, Cable’s delivery rose 5.6 million homes; its HH rating jumped 5 points and its HH share grew 5.6 points. Conversely, Broadcast’s 7-net collective audience measurements continued to erode this week as the delivery for the seven nets fell 1.2 million homes; the rating declined 1.4 points; and the share dropped 4.8 points. Five out of the total seven networks experienced declines this week with CBS posting the greatest loss this week.

In First Quarter 2003, Cable delivered 31.8 million homes and garnered a 29.8 HH rating, its highest viewership levels EVER. Cable also managed to tie the seven networks collective share level this quarter once again, delivering a 47.6 share while Broadcast earned a 47.5. Compared to year ago, Cable experienced healthy gains as delivery grew 2.6 million homes; rating rose 2.2 points; and share jumped 2.8 points. Broadcast sang a different tune this quarter as all audience measurements fell significantly. Broadcast's 7-net delivery fell 1.3 million homes; rating dropped 1.6 points; and share fell off 3.2 points. Broadcast's decline was primarily driven by NBC whose 27% share decline is mainly attributed to the telecasting of the Olympics last year. In fact, the only other network to experience a big loss was UPN.

To date this season, Cable is experiencing healthy gains delivering 30.8 million homes, garnering a 28.9 HH rating, and earning a 46.9 share. Broadcast on the other hand is down across all audience measures. The seven networks have lost 999,000 viewers so far and are experiencing rating and share losses compared to last year’s levels. NBC is the clear driver of the share loss experienced by the seven nets partly due to telecast’s of the Olympics last year.

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Total Day:

Ad Supported Cable rose to 21.0 million homes this week, an increase of 4.1 million viewers from last year on a Total Day basis. Cable’s ratings increased to a 19.7, up 3.7 points from last year and the share increased 6.0 points to finish at 55.9. Cable’s share was once again greater than that of the Broadcast Networks (4 Net.), with the difference being 20.8 points. It should be noted that the major reason for cable’s large gains this week in comparison to last year is that viewers are tuning in to the cable news networks (i.e. CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC) for continued updates on the war in Iraq.

Cable, in the first quarter of 2003, finished very strongly. It ended with a 50.7 share, 12.0 points above Broadcast’s level. Cable ratings were up 1.8 points to finish at 17.6, and its share increased 3.2 points from last year. For the entire quarter, ad-supported cable eclipsed the 50.0 share mark seven times. The Broadcast Networks, by contrast, have experienced a decline in viewership.

For this season, cable rose to 17.9 million homes, up 1.3 million homes from last year. Cable’s rating increased by 1.1 points to end at 16.8 and its share rose to 49.6, an increase of 2.1 points from last year. The broadcast networks continued to experience rating decreases from last year. Ratings were down 0.4 to end at 13.2 and share was down 2.0 points to 39.1.

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Source: Nielsen Galaxy.