NEW YORK: ABC won in prime-time audience growth last week among the Big Four broadcast networks, compared to the same week last year, according to Wachovia’s weekly “Who’s Watching” report. ABC logged a 2 percent gain in TV households for prime time, while CBS dropped 6 percent; Fox was down 16 percent, and NBC fell 28 percent. Season to date, ABC was down 6 percent; Fox, down 15 percent and NBC was down 9 percent. Only CBS remained ahead of itself, up 8 percent in all TV households compared to the same period a year ago.
Wachovia’s ad market update: “Still no notable progress in the upfront, and our expectations are unchanged. However, the longer network negotiations drag on, the more cable’s positioning improves, in our view. We don’t think overall demand for scatter has improved notably over the past couple of weeks.”
Wachovia’s report tracks the weekly (ending June 14) and season-to-date (STD), year-to-year change in average households data for broadcast (live plus same day) and audience data for cable nets (live plus same day): STD is prime time (PT) unless otherwise noted, e.g., Food and HGTV.
-- Disney (ABC): Prime-time avg. household (HH) rating was +2 percent for total HHs and +7 percent for P18-49. STD avg. audience was -6 percent for both.
-- CBS (CBS): PT avg. HH rating was -6 percent for total HHs and -12 percent for P18-49. STD avg. audience was +8 percent and +3 percent, respectively.
-- News Corp. (Fox): PT avg. HH rating was -16 percent for total HHs and -19 percent for P18-49. STD avg. audience was -15 percent and -18 percent, respectively.
-- GE (NBC): PT avg. HH rating was -28 percent for total HHs and -16 percent for P18-49. STD avg. audience was -9 percent and -4 percent, respectively.
-- Viacom:
BET PT avg. audience was +51 percent for P2+ and +62 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +17 percent for P2+ and +19 percent for P25-54.
Comedy Central PT avg. audience was -2 percent for P2+ and -1 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +0 percent and -2 percent, respectively.
MTV PT avg. audience was -12 percent for P2+ and +4 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was -22 percent and -13 percent, respectively.
VH1 PT avg. audience was +7 percent for P2+ and -1 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was -5 percent and -3 percent, respectively.
Nickelodeon PT avg. audience was -8 percent for P2+ and +2 percent for P2-11. STD avg. audience was +8 percent and +8 percent, respectively.
-- Discovery:
Discovery Channel PT avg. audience was +23 percent for P2+ and +20 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +5 percent and +5 percent, respectively.
The Learning Channel PT avg. audience was +47 percent for P2+ and +42 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +9 percent and +2 percent, respectively.
Animal Planet PT avg. audience was -18 percent for P2+ and -8 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +7 percent and +15 percent, respectively.
-- Scripps:
HGTV PT avg. audience was +18 percent for P2+ and +19 percent for P25-54. STD PT avg. audience was +2 percent and +0 percent, respectively. STD total day avg. audience was -2 percent for P2+ and -1 percent for P25-54.
Food Network PT avg. audience was +25 percent for P2+ and +20 percent for P25-54. STD PT avg. audience was +15 percent for P2+ and +14 percent for P25-54. STD total day avg. audience was +8 percent for P2+ and +7 percent for P25-54.
-- Disney:
ESPN PT avg. audience was -11 percent for P2+ and -5 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was flat and +1 percent respectively.
Disney Channel PT avg. audience was +22 percent for P2+ and +19 percent for P2-11. STD avg. audience was -7 & -6 percent respectively.
-- News Corp.:
Fox News Channel PT avg. audience was +36 percent for P2+ and +56 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +45 percent and +51 percent respectively.
F/X PT avg. audience was -4 percent for P2+ and +5 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +4 percent for P2+ and +5 percent for P25-54.
National Geographic PT avg. audience was +25 percent for P2+ and +31 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +12 percent and +9 percent, respectively.
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