TV Newser has charts with annual averages for the last 10 years on the cable news networks. They have charts for P2+ and A25-54 for total day and also for prime-time.
It is interesting to see the longer view and just how far things have progressed over the decade. Things still aren't so great for CNN (though perhaps not nearly as bad from that vantage point) and things are very great for FNC. MSNBC was well above its averages for the decade in 2009, but FNC was at its all time highs in 2009.
I don’t really understand why people keep saying “things aren’t that great for CNN”
It seems like they’re holding their own – the rise of Fox (and to a lesser extent MSNBC & HLN) is just expanding the audience of cable news.
It’s not like CNN’s audience was huge back in 2000 and was eroded by Fox/MSNBC…they seem to be holding their own in the grand scheme of things.
And considering CNN and Headline News are both under the same umbrella of Time Warner (and are sold together to advertisers), it looks like a win-win for them.
Considering total viewership as percentage of coverage 10 years ago and coverage today, MSNBC had a marginal growth, CNN grew a bit, but FNC more than doubled. This means that growth in viewership from 10 years ago pretty much stayed on par with expanded coverage for CNN and MSNCB. In A25-54, CNN didn’t grow, MSNBC had a sharp decline and FNC grew about 60%.
The contrast may be more dramatic with primetime numbers due out tomorrow on Mediabistro.
@Anonymous,
the negative press on CNN is about their relatively recent decline in numbers, which may well continue going forward, not about a steady decline since 2000 (which would be boring)
On the Primetime graph CNN seems to have gone down pretty sharply, MSNBC went down a little but not much and is about tied with CNN. HLN is steadily growing and I think it’s going to take a lot of viewers away from CNN and MSNBC. FOX news just plain skyrocketed in viewers. But how come CNBC wasn’t on the graph? It wasn’t long ago that HLN was barley doing better than they were.
Demonjoe: CNBC is a business news channel rather than a news channel. We include it in the daily results because we get the data. Though I think the 10 year chart of CNBC would be interesting to see, I can understand why TV Newser didn’t include it in its comparisons.
@Applestinx: I might be missing something but the primetime charts were already out when I posted this. They were the inspiration for this post to begin with and I linked to them in the original post.
Did he post two links or only one? To tell the truth, in the excitement I kind of lost track myself. Both links were there when I first read your post, Robert. It’s just that the “primetime tomorrow” note on Mediabistro stuck. My brain must be having trouble retrieving first-in data from the memory stacks.
Anonymous are you serious? CNN is in the tank at this rate they’ll be behind HLN soon.
Okay, I’m finally resgistering my name.
I’m pretty new here, and am pretty ignorant on TV ratings, but I have a question?
Viewing the prime-time chart, I noticed that the Fox News competitors viewers pretty much stayed flat, but Fox’s numbers grew and grew. But, where did they come from? Who lost out big if CNN and MSNBC retained most of their viewers?
Obviously, they are drawing from all other networks at that time-frame, but does anyone know if Fox gained from the big OTA networks, cable, a specific show, etc?
I think this pulling not from other news channnels says volumes about the opinion shows/personalities Fox chose to put up in prime-time.