Thursday, January 26, 2017

Donald Trump Presidential Campaign leaves networks Rich with Ratings

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Cable TV Rankings 2016: Presidential Politics Fuels Ratings Gains

December 20, 2016

2016 will be remembered as the year Donald Trump won the White House by taking control of the television news cycle. One year after the reality TV star’s antics and debate performances nearly catapulted Fox News Channel to the top spot among basic cable networks, finishing within 300,000 viewers of ESPN, this year Fox News leapfrogged the sports network by more than half a million primetime viewers, averaging nearly 2.5 million to ESPN’s 1.9 million.

With presidential politics taking over as viewers’ contact sport of choice, FNC enjoyed a 36% year-to-year total-viewer spike, while ESPN tumbled 11%, after 2015’s 7% decline.

But FNC wasn’t the only cable news network benefiting. CNN enjoyed a Trump-fueled 77% total-viewers spike, pushing AMC out of the yearly primetime Top 10; last year, CNN only notched a 24th-place finish. 

This year, AMC will settle for 11th place, after dropping 9% year to year.

And MSNBC, last year’s No. 29-ranked basic cable net in overall primetime crowd, jumped 87% to land at No. 12 with 1.1M viewers compared with previous year’s 596K.

The rest of 2016’s Top 10 list is the Land of Double-Digit Declines, save USA Network, which dropped a more modest 8%, and HGTV, the only non-news network to experience audience again in primetime crowd, to the tune of 5%.

USA Network

USA did, however, hang on to its status as the most watched basic cable entertainment network for an 11th consecutive year, finishing behind FNC and ESPN with 1.7M viewers.

ESPN hung on to the top spot in the coveted 18-49 demographic group, with 816K viewers in that age bracket. But here too the network tumbled, 12%, on the heels of last year’s 9% slip.

In the demo, as in overall audience, the biggest year-to-year gains were enjoyed by the news networks. CNN spiked a massive 90% in the 18-49 age group, logging 373K primetime viewers to outstrip FNC (354K, up 51%) for the year. In the percentage racket, CNN was beaten by MSNBC, which climbed 99% from last year’s negligible 104K to 207K this year.

But TBS was No. 2 in the demo to ESPN with 729K viewers, despite sloughing off 13% of its audience; USA followed (692K), with a 4% year-to-year slip.


Here are the 2016 rankings in total viewers and demo through December 18:

BASIC CABLE RANKINGS 2016

(Total Viewers in millions)

Rank
network
p2+ 2016
p2+ 2015
% change
1
Fox News Channel
2.48M
1.83M
+36%
2
ESPN
1.91M
2.15M
-11%
3
USA Network
1.68M
1.82M
-8%
4
TBS
1.59M
1.80M
-12%
5
HGTV
1.58M
1.50M
+5%
6
TNT
1.55M
1.72M
-10%
7
Discovery Channel
1.40M
1.55M
-10%
8
History
1.33M
1.49M
-11%
9
Disney Channel
1.32M
1.72M
-23%
10
CNN
1.30M
0.732M
+77%
11
AMC
1.26M
1.38M
-9%
12
MSNBC
1.113M
0.596M
+87%
13
FX
1.109M
1.22M
-9%
14
Food Network
1.06M
1.11M
-5%
15
Hallmark Channel
1.06M
0.959M
+10%
16
Investigation Discovery
0.994M
0.909M
+9%
17
Adult Swim
0.991M
1.05M
-6%
18
Lifetime
0.955M
1.04M
-8%
19
Bravo
0.908M
0.849M
+7%
20
TLC
0.877M
0.926M
-5%
21
A&E Network
0.847M
0.937M
-10%
22
Freeform
0.812M
1.05M
-22%
23
Nick At Nite
0.808M
0.814M
-1%
24
Spike TV
0.704M
0.779M
-10%
25
Syfy
0.692M
0.990M
-30%
26
VH1
0.639M
0.639M
0%
27
TV Land
0.620M
0.606M
2%
28
Disney Junior
0.595M
0.617M
-4%
29
Nick Jr
0.594M
0.416M
+43%
30
Animal Planet
0.593M
0.636M
-7%
31
OWN
0.537M
0.584M
+9%
32
MTV
0.580M
0.569M
-2%
33
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
0.549M
0.428M
+28%
34
Comedy Central
0.529M
0.583M
-9%
35
E!
0.521M
0.535M
-3%
Source: Nielsen; Live+SD numbers from 12/28/2015-12/18/2016


BASIC CABLE RANKINGS 2016(Adults 18-49 in Thousands)

rank
network
p18-49 2016
p18-49 2015
% change
1
ESPN
816K
923K
-12%
2
TBS
729K
836K
-13%
3
USA Network
692K
723K
-4%
4
TNT
625K
639K
-2%
5
AMC
610K
698K
-13%
6
Discovery Channel
575K
669K
-14%
7
FX
560K
609K
-8%
8
Adult Swim
530K
543K
-2%
9
HGTV
476K
466K
+2%
10
Bravo
469K
474K
-1%
11
Food Network
431K
469K
-8%
12
History
417K
476K
-12%
13
Lifetime
411K
434K
-5%
14
Freeform
408K
527K
-23%
15
VH1
396K
400K
-1%
16
A&E Network
390K
399K
-2%
17
CNN
373K
196K
+90%
17
MTV
373K
371K
+1%
19
Fox News Channel
354K
234K
+51%
20
Spike TV
344K
388K
-11%
21
Comedy Central
337K
379K
-11%
22
TLC
334K
365K
-8%
23
Investigation Discovery
327K
310K
+5%
24
Disney Channel
319K
385K
-17%
25
Nick At nite
298K
276K
+8%
26
E!
290K
305K
-5%
27
Syfy
280K
399K
-30%
28
Hallmark Channel
251K
199K
+26%
29
TruTV
223K
232K
-4%
30
FXX
219K
228K
-4%
31
BET
209K
289K
-28%
32
MSNBC
207K
104K
+99%
33
OWN
202K
185K
+9%
34
Fox Sports 1
201K
170K
+18%
35
Animal Planet
193K
224K
-14%
Source: Nielsen; Live+SD numbers from 12/28/2015-12/18/2016

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