Schonfeld on the numbers…
Reese blogs about the August numbers…
I’ve tossed a lot of numbers onto the page, and only those who are really interested will spend a lot of time analyzing them. But the headlines are simple. MSNBC made major gains in all categories, but some of those gains slipped away in August. In other words, MSNBC was terrific in June and July, but has slowed down somewhat in August. For instance, MSNBC had 17% of the total audience for the quarter, but only 16% for August. That’s still terrific—in both cases up from 12% last year, but the MSNBC surge may have peaked.
Most of the MSNBC primetime gains came from Fox which lost 5% of its market share third quarter to ’06 to ’07. In total day MSNBC picked up 4% market share and Fox was down 4%. Probably coincidentally, CNN was down 2% in that period and Headline News up 2%. CNN did gain market share in Adults 25-54 in the third quarter, picking up 3% from Fox, while Headline News picked up 2% again from Fox. MSNBC remained at 16%, the only area in which they did not show progress. MSNBC made its best demographic gains in the highly coveted 18-49 market—up 7% in prime time. If they keep that up, maybe they’ll want to change the demographics they sell against.
What are everyone’s ideas on what caused the drops at Fox?
Comment by Nancy — September 6, 2007 @ 10:03 am
What I want to know is how he’s so confident that CNN picked up 3% from Fox News and later, “Headline news picked up 2% again from Fox”. That’s utterly ridiculous to make that kind of statement. But hey, consider the source.
Comment by Alison — September 6, 2007 @ 10:40 am
How exactly does Shonfeld know that the “Most of the MSNBC primetime gains came from Fox”?
Comment by 186 — September 6, 2007 @ 10:47 am
Thank you 186.
Comment by Alison — September 6, 2007 @ 11:39 am
Schonfeld must have been off his (anti-Fox?)meds because he didn’t mention that last week FNC absent from the top 10 among cable networks.
Comment by Ira — September 6, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
Ira- O’Reilly was out last week… perhaps that’s the reason. Interesting that Schonfeld credits MSNBC losses with Olbermann’s absence, but mentions nothing about O’Reilly’s absence.
Comment by ImNotBlue — September 6, 2007 @ 12:10 pm
I agree with Alison…this is such poor ratings analysis IMO. I don’t even know why Spud bothers posting this…not even worth reading.
Comment by Anonymous — September 6, 2007 @ 12:34 pm
This is a new stat for Schonfeld. At least I’ve never seen him use it. Whatever backs up the point you want to make.
Comment by erljr — September 6, 2007 @ 1:17 pm
Perhaps Spud posts it for the amusement factor it brings us?
Comment by Alison — September 6, 2007 @ 1:23 pm