Week 28 of the 2002/03 Season (3/31-4/6/03)

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Week 28 of the 2002/03 Season (3/31-4/6/03)

Primetime:

Ad Supported Cable reaches 50+ primetime share mark for the third consecutive week. Cable topped the seven broadcast networks combined by six million homes, 6 rating points, and 10 share points in the 28th week of the 02/03 Broadcast Season. Compared to a year ago, Cable’s delivery rose 4.7 million homes; its HH rating jumped 4.1 points and its HH share grew 5.3 points. Conversely, Broadcast’s 7-net collective audience measurements continued to erode this week as the delivery for the seven nets fell 1.0 million homes; the rating declined 1.3 points; and the share dropped 3.5 points. Six out of the total seven networks experienced declines this week with NBC posting the greatest loss this week.

To date this season, Cable is experiencing healthy gains delivering 30.9 million homes, garnering a 29.0 HH rating, and earning a 47.1 share. Broadcast on the other hand is down across all audience measures. The seven networks have lost over a million viewers to date 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.

Download Primetime Spreadsheet

Total Day:

Ad Supported Cable rose to 20.7 million homes this week, an increase of 3.6 million viewers from last year on a Total Day basis. Cable’s ratings increased to a 19.4, up 3.2 points from last year and the share increased 6.0 points to finish at 56.2, the highest share for cable to date. Cable’s share was once again greater than that of the Broadcast Networks (4 Net.), with the difference being 21.8 points. This signifies the largest difference between ad supported cable and the broadcast networks in history. It should be noted that a 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. Collectively, broadcast was down in all measures in comparison to last year.

For this season, cable rose to 18.0 million homes, up 1.4 million homes from last year. Cable’s ratings increased by 1.2 points to end at 16.9 and its share rose to 49.8, an increase of 2.2 points from last year. The broadcast networks continued to experience declines from last year. It saw its impressions fall by 194,000 homes. Ratings were down 0.3 to end at 13.2 and share also decreased, down 2.1 points to end at 38.9.

Download Total Day Spreadsheet

Source: Nielsen Galaxy.

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