CABLETELEVISION ADVERTISING BUREAU
830 THIRD AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10022 (212) 508-1200
CABLETELEVISION ADVERTISING BUREAU
830 THIRD AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10022 (212) 508-1200
With total day TV usage among Ch2-11 at a five year high, children are choosing cable programming over Broadcast's as sizable numbers of viewers abandon broadcast during key dayparts. During Saturday mornings (7-10am), children 2-11 deserted Broadcast in droves in 4Q03 as viewership for the five networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, & WB) fell about a half million viewers from previous year – reaching its lowest level in five years. Broadcast’s steep decline during Saturday morning was primarily driven by WB as the network experienced a sharp -22% decline in viewership. As kids turned to the tube on their day off from school – cable was top choice as viewership pretty much remained on par with previous year.
Source: Nielsen’s Galaxy.
Not only does cable continue to outperform Broadcast significantly during the Monday-Friday strip, cable’s viewership continues to grow year after year. Cable’s 2-11 viewership soared during the Monday-Friday 7-10am daypart as 311,000 more viewers tuned in to capture cable’s programming - cartoons while Broadcast remained relatively flat from previous year. In addition to cable’s substantial yearly growth, cable’s viewership reached its highest level in five years in 4Q03 -2.6 million viewers aged 2-11.
Source: Nielsen’s Galaxy.
In the final kids’ daypart, Monday-Friday 3-5pm, Broadcast had a hard time holding on to their young viewers - Ch2-11 - as viewership slipped - 857,000 while cable remained stable. Broadcast's sharp decline was driven chiefly by FOX’s (-44%) and WB (-26%) poor performance this quarter.
Source: Nielsen’s Galaxy.
In essence, while cable programming continues to attract young viewers and hold their attention through creative programming, Broadcast continues to struggle with this demographic as children aged 2-11 continue to desert the Broadcast networks. Children tend to be finicky and Broadcasts’ programming is just not appealing any more. This audience shift should lead some advertisers to allocate even more of their dollars to cable as advertisers should not pay premium prices to advertise on broadcast networks anymore.
Cable’s big niche is its target ability as cable networks live action and animation children programming targets children 2-11 most of the day whereas Broadcast is a part time player.
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Content © 2004 by Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau (www.onetvworld.org). Reprinted with Permission.