Cable: By the Numbers

People have been predicting the death of TV and specifically cable every time the viewing curve dips. The facts speak otherwise. However, one of the great things about Punch Media is that it's multi-platform.

News viewership is an important indicator. Entertainment stats available also, of course.

http://stateofthemedia.org/2012/overview-4/major-trends/

News viewership on television grew in unexpected venues. At the three traditional broadcast television networks, news audiences grew 4.5%, the first uptick in a decade. At the local level, audiences grew in both morning and late evening, the first growth in five years. There were more gains from the stations adding news at 4:30 a.m. Cable news audiences also grew, by 1%, after falling the year before. But for the first time since we began these reports, the growth came at CNN (16% growth in median prime-time viewership) and to a lesser extent MSNBC (3% growth). By contrast, Fox News, though still by far the ratings leader, had a second year of decline. Much of the growth may be short-lived, a function of big, visually oriented news stories rather than change in habits. Local news stations saw audiences for their evening newscasts (those most likely to include national and international affairs) fall back quickly when the uprisings in the Middle East subsided.

http://stateofthemedia.org/2012/cable-cnn-end...e-audience

Cable: By the Numbers