Week 31 of the 2002/03 Season (4/21-4/27/03)

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Week 31 of the 2002/03 Season (4/21-4/27/03)

Primetime:

Cable’s ratings sweep continued this week as Ad Supported Cable outperformed the Broadcast’s seven net share level for the eighth consecutive week, delivering a 48.6. Compared to year ago, Cable delivered 1.3 million more homes and experienced healthy rating and share gains as well. Conversely, Broadcast’s share experienced a slight decline which was mainly driven by ABC’s and NBC’s weak performances. Fox on the other hand experienced a 29% share gain greatly thanks to telecast’s of “American Idol”.

In Second Quarter 2003 to date, Cable is outperforming Broadcast’s seven collective household share level by an impressive 7.3 points. Cable’s household delivery is 4.6 million above Broadcast’s and its household rating is surpassing Broadcast’s by 4.3 points. Compared to year ago, Cable is up a healthy 2.6 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 29.2 HH rating, and earning a 47.5 share. Broadcast on the other hand is down across all audience measures. The seven networks have lost 887,000 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 18.4 million homes this week, an increase of 1.8 million viewers from last year on a Total Day basis. Cable’s ratings increased to a 17.3, up 1.6 points from last year and the share increased 2.6 points to finish at 52.3. Cable’s share was once again greater than that of the Broadcast Networks (4 Net.), with the difference being 15.5 points. It should be noted that cable’s large lead this week in comparison to broadcast can be partly attributed to viewers tuning in to the cable news networks (i.e. CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC) for continued updates on the aftermath of the war in Iraq. The broadcast networks were up slightly in viewership and ratings in comparison to last year, but were down in share.

Cable, to date, in the second quarter, has a commanding lead over the broadcast networks. It ended with a 54.6 share, 19.3 points above Broadcast’s level. Ratings were up 2.4 points to finish at 18.3, and share increased 4.3 points from last year. The Broadcast Networks have experienced a slight increase in viewership, but have seen declines in ratings and share.

For this season, cable rose to 18.1 million homes, up 1.5 million homes from last year. Cable’s ratings increased by 1.3 points to end at 17.0 and its share rose to 50.3, an increase of 2.4 points from last year. The broadcast networks continued to experience declines from last year. It sustained losses across the board as impressions fell by 155,000 homes, ratings declined by 0.2 to end at 13.1 and share decreased by 2.1 points to end at 38.6.

Download Total Day Spreadsheet

Source: Nielsen Galaxy.

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