Fox News gains, other news networks fall

[RamboLiberal]

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=200309040244000204239&dt=20030904024400&w=RTR&coview=

Fox News Channel was the only cable news service in August to grow in viewership from a year ago, gaining 20% in primetime and 29% across the entire day, according to Nielsen Media Research.

By comparison, CNN fell by 9% in primetime and total day, while MSNBC lost 21% in primetime and 11% for the day. Headline News and CNBC also suffered losses greater than 20% compared with August 2002. It marked the 28th consecutive month that Fox led the news channel pack.

<snip>

Otherwise on Fox, "Hannity & Colmes" rose by 26% to average 1.4 million viewers, while 9 p.m. rival "Larry King Live" fell by 12% to 1.12 million. At 8 p.m., "The O'Reilly Factor" edged up 9% to 1.94 million as CNN's Paula Zahn show "Live From the Headlines" -- still under her old format -- dropped by 18% to 593,000. CNN hopes to improve its 7-11 p.m. performance when Zahn and Anderson Cooper, who anchors the 7 p.m. hour, debut their new formats this month.

On MSNBC, "Scarborough Country" was flat at 10 p.m. with 254,000 viewers as it benefited from generous comparisons with the low-rated "Ashleigh Banfield" a year ago. At 7 p.m., "Hardball" inched up 2% as the Chris Matthews-hosted show drew 276,000 viewers. Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" show averaged 230,000 viewers, 39% fewer than "Donahue," and "The Abrams Report" at 9 p.m. had 41% fewer viewers than "Hardball" had in the time slot. But MSNBC had heavily promoted its primetime lineup a year ago and did little or no marketing this summer.

[BayCityProgressive]

1. BRING BACK DONAHUE!

[Freddie Stubbs]

18. Yes, he was bringing in huge ratings

[David Zephyr]

19. BRING BACK DONAHUE!

Isn't it obvious that Phil was "silenced"?

How shameful.

[soleft]

2. Why should the rightwingers switch to cnn or Msnbc

when Fox delivers what they want without equivocation.

They really should stop trying to be Fox light and offer an alternative

[ProfessorGAC]

5. I've Been Saying The Same For >1 Year

The people who run those networks should be fired for incompetence.

By turning right, both of those channels attempted to fight for the miniscule audience that had already established their brand loyalty.

The smart business thing to do would have been to recognize that it's a niche market. (Even O'Reilly's ratings are a little over 1, and they're the highest in cable news!) Then, you find a different market niche that is underserved by what's out there. I would think a liberal slant would have suited MSNBC's bottom line far better than putting Savage and Scarborough on air, and dumping Donahue. If Fox wanted to accuse them of being liberal, they could say "Yes, we're the anti-Fox, and unlike them, we admit it."

Think the 25% of avowed liberals wouldn't flock to a channel that admitted it took liberal positions and didn't bow down to the powers that be? I sure do. Besides, the business model they're following sure isn't working.
The Professor

[dbt]

9. DEAD ON, Professor!

Now, the fact that the Fox wannabes persist in their delusion only confirms to me that the fix is sho nuff in! or to put it simply:

ABCCBSNBCCNN are still deliberately propping up bu$h despite the low ratings it brings them!

Kill your TV before it kills you,
:argh:
dbt

[rocktivity]

13. Dead on, DBT!

ABCCBSNBCCNN are still deliberately propping up bu$h despite the low ratings it brings them!

Either that, or they have definitive proof that there's a vast wasteland of right wingnuts out there who aren't watching Fox, but are patiently waiting for a cheap imitation of it! They can't honestly think that there isn't a liberal equivalent of Fox fans out there. And there ARE more of us than there are of them!


rocknation

[chadm]

10. They can't do that

MSNBC makes up just a small part of NBC's (and Microsoft's?) revenue. If they piss off their sponsors, they will see reprecussions throughout their business. Better to take a loss on one channel to preserve everything else.

This is a good example of what's wrong with media consolidation.

You people assume incompetence, but that is almost NEVER the case. When you make these kinds of assumptions there's probably something you don't understand.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Nonsense

I assume nothing. The evidence is clear. You must not know much about how GE runs their divisions.

Look it up.

Each division is measured by metrics specific to each as if each were their own stand alone firm. Your assumption shows more about your lack of understanding than anything i could have exhibited about mine.

I know how GE runs their show. You, apparently, don't.
The Professor

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

3. msnbc tanking

going to the right really worked for them, didn't it?

[prolesunited]

4. Didn't they supposedly get rid of Donahue because of low ratings

And that viewers were uncomfortable with his topics/guests. I guess this little tidbit proves it was more about stifling dissent than ratings:

Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" show averaged 230,000 viewers, 39% fewer than "Donahue,"

Can't have your TV division not supporting your weapons division. And so it goes in the world of corporate controlled media pushing a kinder, gentler brand of fascism.

[SOS]

6. Fox will always get the RWers

Pleased to see MSRNC and CNN losing. Hopefully their revenues will fall sharply too. Both tried to copy Fox. Both lost. Regaining their credibility will be nearly impossible.

[Starpass]

7. Couple things I find real interesting here

First, not many people really watch these networks and shows. Seems like it appeals basically to political junkies who already have there minds set. So, that tells me that the "action" for the news is still the 3 networks; meaning that that is where America is getting it's news. Secondly, this is what these assholes get for all scrambling to divide up the same rightwinger pie---there's only so much of the pig pie to begin with. How many liberals, Dems, even independents do they lose because there is 'nothing' for them to watch (they turn off Fox and they find mini-me Fox on the others so they turn them off to). Maybe one of these brain dead cable networks might see what doing "liberal" will bring in---in fact, now with Bush being ground under the public's heel, it would be a hell of a good time to try thinking outside their narrow minded box. And third, I don't get Fox on Adelphia---perhaps some of this jump is in areas where Adelphia is being replaced by Time Warner, etc.???

[RamboLiberal]

8. Starpass MSNBC ought to hire you or another DU'er as

program director. And I think you hit on something with it may just be Adelphia being replaced by TimeWarner (though mine is now Comcast).

[diplomats]

14. Exactly

1.95 million watch Bill O'Reilly; that's less than 1 percent of the population.

[RamboLiberal]

23. A lot of people say they get their news from Letterman and Leno

:scared:

[chadm]

11. There's no excuse to watch any of these channels

Don't waste your time or energy. Check out Democracy Now! daily or some other radio / internet news program. I decided about 9 months ago to boycott most all television news and I'm much better off for it.

[peterh]

15. Sidebar….rant…

O’Reilly’s blast is directed at the N.Y. Times, but that’s immaterial, the fact that he views America as non-secular or maybe more accurately, a theorcarcy, really strikes a nerve with me. I know this critter is nothing but a scumbag, but to have just a blatant disregard for what I feel is one of the key points in our Constitution, just burns my ass.

There’s no discounting the fact that Faux News is a major player in the fomenting of views and opinion and thus should be held accountable to at least some minimal standard of accuracy….but I guess those days are gone. As the chairman of the BBC said a few months back, the American media has lost their credibility.




<http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2003/9/3/172342.shtml>

In his Talking Points memo last night, O'Reilly fired back at the newspaper, which "is leading the charge to turn America into a secular nation and return political power to the left wing of the Democratic Party."

[samsingh]

16. these numbers are so anemic

Buffy and Enterprise score higher than the largest of these on a regular basis.

All Fox has managed to do is create a meeting hub for right wing idiots. The other networks are stupid to try and get a piece of this relatively small (3 to 4 million people audience) audience.

Other, balanced and intelligent viewers have given up watching. It becomes a double whammy to Fox competitors. They can't outdo Fox. They lose the other audience when they try to. This is overall a stupid strategy.

[robbedvoter]

17. Fux "growth": buying new markets. Just bought Direct TV

that doesn't mean that people turn on to Fux, only that slowly Fux is inching towards being the only choice in news. And "fuzzy" news like this only help them.

[0007]

20. Nothing has changed!

These figures are pure propaganda don't believe 'em. In fact boycott the whores.

[bucknaked]

21. As significant much as Limbaugh supposedly having "25 million listeners"

Mind you, he reached the height of his popularity as Clinton was receiving around 70% approval numbers.

IMO, average right-wingers can never reach their own conclusions or argue their own points sufficiently, hence the popularity of right wing media, and the endless handing-down of their rhetoric.

BTW, notice how many conservatives are finally (ever so mildy) starting to ackowledge Fox's "right of center" leanings? They're trying to correlate that, with the network's popularity, as an indication that they're "winning the war of ideas." Whatever, dude!

[KamaAina]

22. "Other" news networks fall?

A subtly misleading headline. It implies that Faux is a "news" network rather than a tentacle of the right-wing propaganda sea monster.

[Simeon Salus]

24. Bush and Fox

So nice to know that the Official News Network of the United States of America (TM) gets good ratings.

Did Goebbels get good ratings? I'm not a skilled media historian...

I guess we'll never learn the name of Stalin's ace media guy. Likely he and Ivan Denisovitch were bunkies.