Week 34 of the 2002/03 Season (5/12-5/18/03)

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Week 34 of the 2002/03 Season (5/12-5/18/03)

Primetime:

Cable delivered a 46.8 share this 34th week of the 02/03 Broadcast Season, up 2.3 share points from year ago while Broadcast continued to experience erosion during its third week of May sweeps. During one of Broadcast’s strongest programming weeks, Cable’s delivery grew 1.7 million homes from last year, delivering 29.8 million viewers and its rating experienced a 1.3 household rating increase. On the contrary, Broadcast’s viewership fell 1.2 million viewers and its household rating and share declined 1.5 and 2.3 points, respectively. In fact, five out of the total seven nets experienced share losses this week with NBC being the clear driver of Broadcast’s erosion as the network‘s share level decreased by 14%. Broadcast’s losses would have been greater this week but Fox managed to offset some of Broadcast’s losses thanks mainly to telecasts of “American Idol” as the network’s share increased an impressive 21% from year ago.

For Second Quarter 2003 to date, Cable is outperforming Broadcast’s seven collective household share level by a healthy 43.6 points. Cable’s household delivery is 2.2 million above Broadcast’s and its household rating is surpassing Broadcast’s by 2.0 points. Compared to year ago, Cable is up a healthy 2.4 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 896,000 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.

Download Primetime Spreadsheet

Total Day:

Ad Supported Cable rose to 17.2 million homes this week, an increase of 900,000 viewers from last year on a Total Day basis. Cable’s ratings increased to a 16.1, up 0.7 points from last year and the share increased 1.2 points to finish at 50.2. Cable’s share was once again greater than that of the Broadcast Networks (4 Net.), with the difference being 11.7 points. The broadcast networks were up in viewership compared to last year, but were down in ratings and share.

Cable, to date, in the second quarter, has a commanding lead over the broadcast networks. It ended with a 53.0 share, 16.5 points above Broadcast’s level. Ratings were up 1.8 points to finish at 17.4, and share increased 3.2 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 18.1 million homes, up 1.6 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 121,000 homes, ratings declined by 0.2 to end at 13.0 and share decreased by 1.9 points to end at 38.6.

Download Total Day Spreadsheet

Source: Nielsen Galaxy.

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