NEW YORK: CBS powered ahead again in audience growth over last year compared to the other Big Four broadcast networks. CBS’s average household rating grew in last week by 9 percent over last year. Season-to-day, the average number of households watching increased 8 percent over a year ago. All other broadcast networks metrics were down in Wachovia’s Weekly “Who’s Watching” report.
Wachovia’s ad market update: (Same as last week, i.e., nothing’s new…) “Still no notable progress in the Upfront, though it is increasingly likely it will break later than expected. 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 weeks.”
Wachovia’s report tracks the weekly (ending June 21) 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 average household (HH) rating was -33 percent for total HHs and -37 percent for P18-49. STD avg. audience was -7 percent for both.
-- CBS (CBS): PT avg. HH rating was +9 percent for total HHs and -6 percent for P18-49. STD avg. audience was +8 percent and +3 percent, respectively.
-- News Corp (Fox): PT avg. HH rating was -20 percent for total HHs and -25 percent for P18-49. STD avg. audience was -15 percent and -18 percent, respectively.
-- GE (NBC): PT avg. HH rating was -27 percent for total HHs and -30 percent for P18-49. STD avg. audience was -9 percent and -4 percent, respectively.
-- Viacom:
BET PT avg. audience was +33 percent for P2+ and +25 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +17 percent for P2+ and +19 percent for P25-54.
Comedy Central PT avg. audience was -21 percent for P2+ and -19 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was flat and -3 percent, respectively.
MTV PT avg. audience was -17 percent for P2+ and -3 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was -22 percent and -13 percent, respectively.
VH1 PT avg. audience was +19 percent for P2+ and -2 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was -4 percent and -3 percent, respectively.
Nickelodeon PT avg. audience was +30 percent for P2+ and +26 percent for P2-11. STD avg. audience was +8 percent and +9 percent, respectively.
-- Discovery:
Discovery Channel PT avg. audience was +15 percent for P2+ and +18 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +5 percent and +6 percent, respectively.
The Learning Channel PT avg. audience was +31 percent for P2+ and +22 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +10 percent and +2 percent, respectively.
Animal Planet PT avg. audience was +4 percent for P2+ and +30 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +7 percent and +16 percent, respectively.
-- Scripps:
HGTV PT avg. audience was +5 percent for P2+ and -2 percent for P25-54. STD PT avg. audience was +2 percent and -1 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 +17 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 -18 percent for P2+ and -20 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was flat for both.
Disney Channel PT avg. audience was -10 percent for P2+ and -7 percent for P2-11. STD avg. audience was -7 percent and -6 percent respectively.
-- News Corp.:
Fox News Channel PT avg. audience was +32 percent for P2+ and +44 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +45 percent and +51 percent respectively.
F/X PT avg. audience was -3 percent for P2+ and -4 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +4 percent for P2+ and +5 percent for P25-54.
National Geographic PT avg. audience was -12 percent for P2+ and -6 percent for P25-54. STD avg. audience was +11 percent and +9 percent, respectively.
