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Cable Sizzled This Summer Season In Prime

As the temperatures rose, cable's ratings heated up as each week delivered a 50+ Household share and outperformed Broadcast by record levels. Over the years, cable has been shifting viewers away from Broadcast in the summer and maintaining them in the fall when viewers start to head back to work/school. This summer, Broadcast tried to combat this problem by airing a mix of new reality programs along with selected repeats. In short, some reality programs have drawn viewers as Broadcast's viewership is down only slightly v. year ago whereas it has experienced significant losses other summer seasons. But when you look at a program ranker, the top programs to fill the Top 10 spots are dramas and sitcoms - not reality programming (see below). For example, CBS's top program this summer was CSI and NBC hit the top 10 with repeats and extra plays of the Law & Order franchise.

This 2003 summer season, cable delivered a 54.8 share - out-delivering the seven nets by an astonishing 17.7 share points. In addition, 10.3 million more viewers tuned into cable than Broadcast this summer. Compared to year ago, Cable's share jumped up 1.4 points whereas Broadcast's continued to erode. Broadcast's decline was driven by three out of the total seven nets, especially by NBC which fell 5%.

Download Summer 2003 Analysis Spreadsheet

Cable experienced much of its 1.3 million household viewership gain this summer season from an influx of young adults as A18-24 viewership grew 8.1% v. year ago, mainly thanks to young female viewers -F18-24 (+14%). As majority of the demographics experienced gains this summer among Cable, P2-11 was the only demo to experience a decline, down 2.8% from year ago greatly thanks to F2-11 (-5.3%).

Download Summer 2003 Primetime Demographic Analysis Spreadsheet

Source: Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau analysis of Nielsen Galaxy data
Summer= 5/26-8/24/03 & 5/27-8/25/02.

Cable struck it big on Tuesday nights with 2.2 million more viewers than year ago greatly thanks to Bravo's telecasts of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy as this night posted its largest gain in Prime this summer season. Monday (+1.7 million) was the second night to post a significant gain followed by Thursday (+1.5 million). In fact, every night of the week experienced viewership gains this summer season in Cable with five of the nights up more than a million viewers. Broadcast continued to perform well with Thursday as 1.7 million more viewers tuned in to catch reruns of Friends and Will & Grace. However, Broadcast couldn't hold on to its audience as viewers flocked to cable on Tuesday and Friday nights.

Source: Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau analysis of Nielsen Galaxy data.
Summer= 5/26-8/24/03 & 5/27-8/25/02.

August 2003 marked another milestone in Cable history as the month delivered its highest share to date - a 55.7, outperforming the seven nets by a remarkable record high 19.8 share points. Cable's delivery and HH rating outshined the seven nets by 11.5 million homes and 10.8 household rating points, respectively. Compared to year ago, Cable's share soared 2.5 share points whereas Broadcast continued to erode - falling to a record low 35.9 HH share level. Even though six out of the total seven nets experienced household share losses this month v. year ago, NBC lead the decline with 8%.

Download August 2003 Analysis Spreadsheet