Is anyone tracking network "news" viewership . . . ???

[defendandprotect]

There were huge drops in viewership that I was aware of a few years ago ---

And, when CNN changed hands it went from an international audience of 13 million dropping down
to 3 million --- !!!

Fox had big drops ---


Just googling . . .

Here's something more recent ---

http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2008/narrative_networktv_audience.php?cat=2&media=6

I'm counting on someone at DU being more knowledgeable about this ...




Here's one report . .
http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2005/narrative_networktv_audience.asp?cat=3&media=4
but ... not that current



Here's a really funny one . . .

Big Three Network Evening News Viewership Has Dropped Like a Rock This Year
By Tom Blumer | July 11, 2006 - 22:10 ET

A year ago tomorrow, I did a post on the continued decline in evening news viewership at Big Three Networks NBC, ABC, and CBS, and made these observations and predictions about why that decline was taking place, and would continue (some of last year's text was slightly revised):

Concluding . . . that it's because of their "liberal bias" and "Bush bashing" . . . !!!!

http://newsbusters.org/node/6369

And. . .

Decline in TV viewership has the networks worried
From: Deseret News (Salt Lake City) Date: May 9, 2007 Author: David Bauder Associated Press | Copyright information Copyright 2007 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest LLC.

NEW YORK -- Maybe they're outside in the garden. They could be playing softball. Or perhaps they're just plain bored.

In TV's worst spring in recent memory, a startling number of Americans drifted away from television the past two months: More than 2.5 million fewer people were watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox than at the same time last year, statistics show.

Everyone has a theory to explain the plummeting ratings: early daylight-saving time, more reruns, bad shows, more shows being recorded or downloaded or streamed.

Scariest of all for the networks, however, is the idea that many people are now making their own television schedules. The industry isn't fully equipped to keep track of them, ...
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-5896958.html

I'll try google ---

[depakid]

1. All I know is that it's unwatchable

It really is that bad....

Not to mention that it's long been an open secret that the ratings systems are largely bogus- but the advertisers have to have something to gauge their time by....

[RockaFowler]

2. I work with the ratings daily

Broadcasting and Cable has some pretty good weekly numbers. Variety does, too. I know that the Nightly News race is really only between ABC and NBC. Katie has totally destroyed CBS News. They were doing better when Shieffer was the anchor. The demos were younger, too.

Here's an article from Broadcasting & Cable:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6540899.html

[Old Codger]

3. I have given up

They aren't really "news" anymore they are attempting to be combination variety and opinion shows... I want to know what is happening in the world and more specifically in the united states, I am not interested in being spoon fed someone elses opinions on candidates, especially not 24/7.

[Clear Blue Sky]

4. Networks=Lame Stream Media

[TreasonousBastard]

5. It's not just TV-- newspapers and general interest news mags...

are in trouble, too. I don't know why, but people just aren't reading or watching the news in the numbers they used to.

And, as much as it's fun to blame it on the media themselves, it pretty much goes across the board so it's us, not them, that are at the root of the problem.

Which leaves us with the question-- if they are not reading, watching, or listening to news, how are they getting their information?

(And why do they still argue like they know what they're talking about?)

[defendandprotect]

7. Some of the reports seem to suggest an overall move to the internet . . .

with which I'd agree --

As far as I'm concerned, there has never been a feeling of legitmacy for me in the news shows --
especially the Sunday TV shows -- there were rare exceptions when Malcolm X and Bobby Kennedy and JFK and James Baldwin --- and their like --- were occasionally seeen. It was startling then!
Martin Luther King, of course --- !!!

C-span when I first caught up with it in '88 . . . had legitimacy then.

I think the public immediately sense in the switchovers of more than a decade ago that it was going from bad to worse -- and there were huge drop-offs in viewership and I think that the internet has just moved viewers out even faster.

For this brief period of time --- and we don't know how long this will last --- we do have the internet!!!

[marmar]

6. I used to tune in to CNN or Headline News every now and again.....

.... but when they added Glenn Beck, that was it. Any remaining credibility they had was blown to pieces.

[SoCalDem]

8. People are not home when these things air, and they have other things to watch

The MSM has lied so much and omitted so many things that are important..and now THEIR chickens have come home to roost,,

We all are just not that "into them" anymore

That's why when we get all lathered up about something we heard, it's just US..Most of the people do not even take a paper.. they hear snippets here and there

I think that if you randomly polled people in your own town, most people could not even name their own senator..or even the vice president..

and most of them probably only know that a black guy, a woman and an old white guy are running for president..