Fox News will finish calendar year 2009 with its highest averages in its history for average viewership (P2+, persons age two and over) in both primetime and total day and during the year it took giant bites of cable news market share. It moved from 41% of the primetime audience in 2008 to 47% in 2009, and 31% of the cable news advertiser target adults 25-54 demographic to 39%.
Although it's impossible to say those gains came from CNN with the data we have, CNN certainly lost tremendous market share in primetime during the year, moving from 26% of the average viewership to just 19%, and from 28% of the demo audience to just 19%, finishing behind MSNBC's 20% for the first time ever in that category.
Headline News also gained share in 2009, although at a lesser rate than Fox News, while MSNBC also lost share, although not nearly at the rate of CNN.
Yesterday, I had a post with the absolute numbers of the changes between 2008 and 2009 cable news primetime and total day viewership and adults 25-54 if you want to see the numbers themselves instead of the market share changes.
Time periods:
2008 : 12/31/2007 - 12/28/2008
2009YTD : 12/29/2008 - 12/16/2009
What I will be interested to see is if this maintains in the off-year elections in 2010, when there will likely be plenty of interest because of the various “what if” scenarios already in play regarding the Congress and its current membership. Will Fox continue to grow or will CNN or MSNBC make some gains? Chances are this will be an above-average year in terms of interest and events with the retirements from the Congress, climate change/global warming push, health care overhaul attempt, and the continued economic problems.
A recent poll shows those choosing to identify as very or somewhat conservative at 63% while the number of those identifying as very or somewhat liberal represent 33%. Moderates registered something like 1%.
You look at the graph above for 2009 and combine CNN/MSNBC you get a little above that 33% number. It is therefore no surprise FNC’s ratings since they are closer to Conservative views. If you go by the poll their ratings actually should be much higher. The lower number here is likely due to them being more moderate and not Conservative enough. If CNN and MSNBC did not have such completely incompetent management they would recognize this. It will be their loss to a 4th competitor if they continue to fail to recognize this.
right wingers are addicted to TV.
CNN is still running their “we’re #1″ promos.
Obama is the best thing that could have ever happened to FOX. The wackos and crazies are scared shitless and they need the comfort of Fox news more than ever. This is why Rupert likes Obama.
This would all be fine if Obama actually had some progressive balls… if he does have… he hasn’t shown them yet.
This is very disturbing news, and a scary indicator of the direction of our country’s intelligence level.
Fox News gets ratings for the same reason that Monday Night Raw gets ratings. Fox News is just the WWE in political form. The slackjaw idiots enjoy a show and then go repeat it like Captain Insano really did hit Bobby Bob Gaither in the head with a tire iron.
mgbhighlander wrote: “This is very disturbing news, and a scary indicator of the direction of our country’s intelligence level.”
You can help raise that level by leaving the country.
Edward, I’m neither a “wacko” nor a “crazy”, but I am scared – scared of the systematic dismantling of the values that made this country great by those who, either intentionally or through ignorance, are engaging in mindless hedonism and progressive destruction. What you’re seeing is that fear throughout the country transform into anger at this self-absorbed orgy of liberalism. The tables will turn. Bet on it.
Kieth Olbermann (sp?) has a segment called the “worse person in the world” and delivers a constant sarcastic rant against conservatism. O’Reilly calls people pinheads which is at least somewhat comical. Maddow is a poor deliverer whose sense of humor falls flat. One can only imagine she was hired because she is a lesbian that can relate to the liberal cul-de-sac on the costs. Liberals shouldn’t cry because conservatives beat them at their own game. All’s fair in love and war and especially politics.
These networks do badly because they reflect the ivory tower, liberal leanings of their managing editors. But not only that they are inherently as dishonest as Fox is made out to be. Just look at the numbers, CNN/MSNBC along with the failing papers constantly overreported Obama’s numbers up until election day by a 5% margin or more. The “conservative” pundits on these networks are really conservative at all but at best center-right elitists who ignore the huge swath of Americans who hold libertarian leanings.
Why would Americans tune into CNN or MSNBC for news? They can get the same thing from any of the major networks pushing a left-leaning view. Maybe if most tv networks did a better job of relating to Americans who everyday have to balance their pocketbooks and see the government grossly living beyond its means spending for programs that they themselves will never see any benefit from (but those that have a lobbyist in Washington will).
… then these same major news-channels would see Fox’s impressive growth in viewership as well.
It seems that news that attracts viewers needs to entertain and validate the viewer’s point of view. FOX News is certainly meeting that need.
When you compare just the three juggernauts Fox, CNN, and MSNBC – Fox gets nearly 65% of the viewership. Now thats power.
Also, did anyone catch Glenn Beck on the Jay Leno show? That was fantastic.
lock the door on the way out K.O. Lover. HAHAHA
Interesting way of presenting the ratings. I wonder when the networks will pick up on circle graphs to cover for overall losses of viewers and demos.
Fear Mongering, Tabloid journalism, and an American Flag waving in the corner of a TV are powerful tools. The ratings prove it!
JC, I caught the Glenn Beck interview on Jay Leno too.
On a side note, I noticed FOX has gone up by a significant margin from 2008 to 2009. I also noticed that some of the liberals on this website aren’t very happy about that.
They say things like:
“right wingers are addicted to TV.”
“Obama is the best thing that could have ever happened to FOX. The wackos and crazies are scared shitless and they need the comfort of Fox news more than ever. This is why Rupert likes Obama. This would all be fine if Obama actually had some progressive balls… if he does have… he hasn’t shown them yet.”
“This is very disturbing news, and a scary indicator of the direction of our country’s intelligence level.”
“Fox News gets ratings for the same reason that Monday Night Raw gets ratings. Fox News is just the WWE in political form. The slackjaw idiots enjoy a show and then go repeat it like Captain Insano really did hit Bobby Bob Gaither in the head with a tire iron.”
It seems when they don’t attack Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity, they attack the viewers of FOX news, usually by calling them nut jobs or idiots. It’s really kind of funny now to watch them lash out irrationally.
Oh here’s another one
“Fear Mongering, Tabloid journalism, and an American Flag waving in the corner of a TV are powerful tools. The ratings prove it!”
Liberals take notice, people are seeing past your brainwashing tactics on the biased channels and actually getting REAL NEWS with Fox NEWS.
Liberals trash Fox news, for one reason only. Because they don’t like people that aren’t brainwashed like them. They only like those who can repeat the typical liberal excuse that has been drilled into their heads from the cradle to the grave.
Liberals, stop drinking the kool-aid and join us normal people.
Liberalism is a DISEASE and we Americans must do what we can to stop the disease from spreading.
And then the Fox news viewers weight in to prove everything we’ve said about them to be true. Fox news is not a news network. ANY local TV station shows more news in a day than Fox News. Fox news even admits that only 4 hours a day of their programming is actual news, everything else is a sideshow act that there to attract the dumbest of the dumb to guffaw at the pretty lights and the insane ramblings of their ringmasters. Fox news viewers are the disease, an IQ over 70 is the cure.