More CNBC ratings leaks…
Wow. Two CNBC ratings leaks in one day. The first is from Talking Biz News…
On Monday, CNBC had its lowest rated weekday primetime rating of the year — just 39,000 viwers in the demographic. The previous low had been this past Friday, when it had 44,000 viewers.
The second comes from the site which displaced Zero Hedge as the must leak CNBC ratings to site on the internet, Wall St. Cheat Sheet. Think I’m overstating things? When was the last time you saw a CNBC ratings leak on Zero Hedge? It’s been months. The leaks have moved over to Wall St. Cheat Sheet. *
Last week, I posted the most recent Nielsen Media Research ratings for CNBC. Although 90% of the comments confirmed CNBC programming was not valuable, a few passionate people came quickly to the defense of their favorite financial entertainment network.
The main criticism was I cherry-picked the data and the comps were against high ratings from the time of the market crash. First, the Nielsen ratings are the ratings. I have no pull at Nielsen to manipulate ratings. They were fresh as the morning dew.
Second, it’s true ratings are down against a tough comp from the Great Crash. However, if we rewind back to January 2008, well before the proverbial fan was hit with shit, the CNBC rating comp still tells the same story: people have turned on, tuned out, and dropped out.
* Of course having said what will probably happen next is a leak will get fed to Zero Hedge just to try and make the leaks not too obvious.
February 11, 2010 at 1:46 pm
The Fox Biz Mole (lol) will point out the flaw in this story. When comparing Jan 08 numbers with Jan 10 numbers, they should have at least made mention of CNBC’s programming at the time.
Back then, CNBC was airing Deal Or No Deal. It was by far the highest rated program on CNBC.
In the first quarter 08, Deal or No Deal avg 572K total and 190K in the “demo”.
February 11, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Just curious, but why do these bloggers feel so “vindicated” in knowing CNBC’s numbers are down – when in reality, they’re seriously raking in the dough (and I read somewhere CNBC is the 2nd most valuable cable channel for NBC Universal)
I mean yeah, the numbers are down. But at the end of the day, it’s quite obvious that pure “ratings” aren’t what fuel CNBC’s success to any degree.
February 11, 2010 at 2:26 pm
wheresthebeef:
I would say its probably because most of them are so fixated on ad revenue they forget where the “real” money comes in to play for alot of the cable networks.
Take CNBC. In the 99M homes or so homes they get a check of between .27 to .29 cents a month from each of those. You can lose or gain ratings but those numbers won’t change until the next contract is up (or theres provisions for increases in payments in future years in the contract).
Probably almost 90% of them don’t realize that CNBC gets almost double the monthly fee of MSNBC.
February 11, 2010 at 4:35 pm
The ultimate business success of the channel depends on the number of viewers. Fewer viewers and there is no justification for high fees per household. Never mind advertising.
They should get a real Chief Washington Reporter like Mark Knoller to replace Administration spin spokesperson John Harwood. I find it insulting to listen to his one sided reports and I sure flip the channel every time he comes on.
February 11, 2010 at 5:04 pm
You’re probably right, but only to an extent.
There’s plenty of low-rated cable channels out there that garner a material monthly subscriber fee, and sub fees aren’t aligned to ratings (i.e. USA Network and Fox have the same 60 cent/month rate, but USA gets notably higher ratings during a 24-hour period)
Regardless, CNBC relies a lot more on their attractive demographics and out-of-home viewership to generate a huge amount of profits (CNBC made $300-350m in profits last year….nearly the same as CNN)
February 11, 2010 at 5:54 pm
L&J it doesnt work like that. Perhaps it should but it doesn’t. And don’t you know the folks at Fox Business Network are glad about that. Where they get anywhere from .10 to .15. If Keith Olbermann knew anything about carriage fees (he doesn’t because he believes all revenue comes only from the “key demo) then his head would explode.
Also keep in mind that CNBC’s ratings are just about where they were when they last renegotiated their contacts. They really don’t have much to worry about.
Look at ESPN getting $4.10 a month.
TNT gets around .95
Fox News Channel (their new contracts get them .75 to .80 a month).
But USA Network only gets .55 a month
NFL Network gets .85 a month and they only show 8 games.
Alot of it has to do on how much squeeze you can put on the cable/satellite providers. How many channels etc.
CNN and HLN combine everything. Together they had around $500 Million in profits last year.