What is the evidence that cable news viewership is lower than network?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

Network nightly news is only on after dinner. Cable gets 24 hour saturation.

When I'm at workplaces, places of business I see CNN, FOX, or MSNBC on all the time.

So unless the methodology to assess viewership takes into account how many people watch, say, 30 minutes of cable news, at ANY TIME of day, cumulatively, compared with watching one of the network shows, I'm a bit skeptical.

The reason I ask this is this: Most of us here on DU including me, deplore the state of corporate media, particularly its right wing bias, especially on cable, including all cable networks.

But many take solace mentioning how low the viewership is compared to network. This has become a conventional wisdom here. But my own observations lead me to be skeptical about this. Sadly, I think cable news is quite influential, which is why the Rovian machine has, I think, put so much effort and resources into influencing it.

Anyone with some links or hard data on this?

[Vexatious Ape]

1. Speaking of places of business

It seems like most hotel lobbies or breakfast rooms have Fox news running. A month ago I was in a Subway and they too had on Fox. I asked the two kids working behind the counter if this was there choice. Hell no. They told me it was the only channel the TV played. I asked if that was corporate policy or the owners but they just shrugged their shoulders and moved on.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. I think this depends on the business, and where you are.

[Erika]

3. Do a google on TV ratings

Cable TV has such a low percentage of the whole, they aren't even considered. They have carved our certain
niches for political/news junkies.

I've never been in an airport that had Faux News on. Faux isn't seen as unbiased.

[Alexodin]

4. No hard data but

If you want to get a real handle on it you will have to subscribe to some very expensive rating services like Nielsen.

The TV viewership universe is fragmented. Cable and Satellite penetrate only so far into many markets. Some major markets are only 50%-60% cabled. So a percentage of the HUT (Households Using Television) that the free over the air broadcasters compete for is divided up between 4 or 6 broadcasters.

Lets say the market is 60% cabled and has ten million TV households. 4 million people can only chose between the big three networks for news. (Or use the internet!)

I do feel, perhaps as you do, that the repetition of the message among cable/sat viewers
does compensate for lack of reach when it comes to the job of getting the message out. The big three have 30 minutes and Sunday and they are done. The cable universe is fragmented among some 50 to 100 cable networks.

This fragmentation of the viewing universe results in much lower "share" or percentage of the HUT for cable news networks. There are simply more choices so less viewers at any one time.

The key to the big three is that many people still do not have cable or sat TV.