The Pew Project For Excellence in Journalism's 2010 The State Of The News Media report estimates that Fox News lead its cable news competitors in profitability for 2009, ahead of CNN and Headline News combined, and far ahead of MSNBC.
CNN chief Jon Klein has stated recently that 2009 was its most profitable year ever, and the SNL estimates agree, just barely. Note what a significant share of revenue cable subscriber fee (vs. advertising) are for the cable news networks (as they are for most cable networks). Subscriber fees are not nearly as subject to rapid change as advertising revenues might be.
While MSNBC has recently closed the ratings gap with CNN, they're still far behind in revenue and profitability, in large part because of the subscriber fee gap.
Note that the ad CPM (cost per thousand viewers) rates in the table below are from 2008, all other numbers are 2009.
Channel
2009 Profit
2009 Total Revenue
2009 Ad Revenue
2009 Subscriber Revenue
2008 CPM for 30-second ad
2009 Average Monthly Subscriber Fee
CNN & HLN $475.5 million (+1%) $1.18 billion (-1%) $513.4 million $578.8 million $5.81 $0.48 Fox News $534.8 million (+17%) $1.21 billion (+14%) $622.9 million $569.5 million $3.97 $0.49 MSNBC $149.6 million (+1%) $367.5 million (+ < 1%) $183.6 million $180.2 million $3.33 $0.16
Source: SNL Kagan, a division of SNL Financial LLC. All figures are estimates, and figures for 2009 are projections.
There is a mountain of data in the original report for those interested.
I think that MSNBC is capable of having lower ratings because it has CNBC and NBC news. They are able to share correspondents and reduce total costs. While MSNBC may be lower profitability, it is still profitable and it helps NBC a lot. FNC is raking in a fortune, I wonder how long their anchors will be content with their pay considering they are the main reason for the increase of revenue. Media Corp is obviously using some of the revenue to subsidize their print short comings. As for CNN, they aught to be lucky that presidental elections happen every 4 years otherwise they would be getting less subscriber fees than MSNBC.
Well Fox is entertainment – thats bound to be higher than dreary news.
Out of interest is there a specific reason why the MSNBC subscriber fee is so far behind both Fox and CNN, is that fee really reflective of the difference in coverage between them? If so (for me at least) that's a fairly surprising gap between MSNBC and everyone else and it doesn't ring true with the CPM.
Also am I correct in assuming that he CPM for CNN/HLN is so far above Fox because that's their combined CPM and that's CNN's solo CPM is likely on the same level as both Fox and MSNBC? If that's the case then it would put HLN's solo CPM around the $2 mark.
I think that it is funny because according to the current administration, Fox News is not a real news outlet, so shouldn't the competition be just between CNN/HN and MSNBC if we are going by the current administrations beliefs.
And yet, what network is not only the most profitable, but also the most watched. Even the lowest rated Fox News show is so far ahead in viewership and ratings than any of the other cable news networks combined.
It puts a huge grin on my face to see this!
Alex, the difference between the MSNBC and CNN/HLN subscriber fee has to be something other than coverage difference because its not that signficant http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/12/28/cable-netw…
My guess is that those subscriber fees change very slowly, during the negotiation process, and that since MSNBC's ratings rise, and CNN's relative fall is so recent (within 5 years) that the process still hasn't caught up.
I have no idea how to explain the CPM rate differences.
Those subscriber fees should be interesting to keep an eye on, just to gauge how quickly MSNBC can get them up to comparable levels to CNN and Fox. Of course I suppose the fact that those subscriber fees cover CNN and HLN might also explain some of the disconnect as well.
Looking at MSNBC's ratings and how they are trending down across the board, it will be a hard sell to increase their sub fees too much and/or increase their coverage via SD or HD channels in some markets. CNN may also have some difficulty as contracts come up, since they have seen a larger percentage slip than the NBC channels.
The next 12-14 months will be interesting, to say the least.
Looking at MSNBC's ratings and how they are trending down across the board, it will be a hard sell to increase their sub fees too much and/or increase their coverage via SD or HD channels in some markets. CNN may also have some difficulty as contracts come up, since they have seen a larger percentage slip than the NBC channels.
The next 12-14 months will be interesting, to say the least.