Can Anyone Beat this Cable Network?

Secrets Behind USA’s Record Ratings Rally at No. 1

By Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 4/5/2010 3:44:38 AM

USA Network has become a royal pain for cable networks looking to win a quarterly ratings crown.

The network has been virtually unbeatable among adsupported cable entertainment networks, notching its 15th consecutive quarterly win during the first three months of 2010, according to a Disney-ABC Television Group analysis of Nielsen Media Research analysis.

USA’s triple programming threat of quality original scripted series such as Royal Pains, Psych, White Collar and In Plain Sight; World Wrestling Entertainment’s audience-grabbing franchise Monday Night Raw; and such acquired off -network fare as NCIS and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit have made the NBC Universal-owned channel a virtual lock for the top ratings slot in prime time every quarter.

USA, whose maxim is “Characters Welcome,” averaged 3.1 million total viewers from Dec. 29, 2009 to March 26, 2010, drawing nearly 1 million more viewers than its closest competitor, Disney Channel. The network also swept all key advertiser-coveted demos, including adults 18 to 49, 25 to 54 and 18 to 34.

“For us, the biggest challenge is trying to top ourselves every quarter every year,” said Bonnie Hammer, president of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions. “It’s exciting and its great, but it’s also scary, because we’re constantly asking ourselves, ‘How do we keep doing it?’ ”

Only a few have knocked USA from its perch, and only briefly: ad-free network Disney Channel, with a strong third-quarter 2007 supported by the 18 million- viewer premiere for original movie High School Musical 2 — and sports network ESPN, with four consecutive years of fourth-quarter wins, aided by several audience record-setting Monday Night Football telecasts.

One of USA’s key strategies is a willingness to constantly rearrange its programming schedule to maximize audience reach and viewers.

In the first quarter of 2010, the network abandoned the traditional Friday- and Sunday-night beachhead from which it launched original series. Instead, it opted for head-to-head battle with the broadcasters on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights when TV viewing levels — and competition — are at their peak.

The network debuted three of its biggest shows — White Collar, Psych and Burn Notice — at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, respectively. The move was an effort to draw in a younger, more affluent viewer, according to Hammer.

“In a sense, we had to grow up and get off of the Friday-night habit, where it was more of a protected zone, so we took a page out of the broadcast playbook and put strong dramedies on those days,” she said. “We created a space where we had continuity and pushed people from Tuesdays to Wednesday and Wednesday to Thursday and brought in younger, more affluent viewers.”

The result: double-digit increases in the 18-to-34 demographic for those shows, compared to prior seasons — and another quarterly ratings win. USA hopes to maintain its momentum with last week’s launch of new episodes of returning original series Law & Order: Criminal Intent and In Plain Sight, Hammer said.

USA hopes to lure those same young, affluent viewers back to the network when White Collar, Psych and Burn Notice return this summer, along with last year’s No. 1 new original series, Royal Pains, and two newcomers, Covert Affairs and Facing Kate.

“We hope to have that added value of having that new interested younger core coming in, as well as our more consistent, older audience,” Hammer said.

As unbeatable as USA seems, its performance showed signs of weakness in the first quarter against stiffer broadcast competition. It posted a 4% drop in total viewers compared to the same period in 2009 and an even more alarming 12% decline among 18- to-49-year-olds, as well as a 10% decline among its core 25-to-54 demographic during the quarter, according to Nielsen.

But USA wasn’t alone in posting ratings declines — nearly half of cable’s 20 most-watched networks during the quarter posted negative audience gains. In fact, ad-supported cable networks as a whole suffered a 1% decline in household share for the quarter to an average of 57.4 households watching cable networks.

The four major broadcast networks — on the heels of NBC’s successful Winter Olympics coverage from Vancouver — posted a rare gain in household share to 36.2, according to a Turner Research analysis of Nielsen numbers.

The last time cable share dropped during the first quarter was in 2006, during NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

“This is like clockwork — every four years, cable’s share goes down due to the Olympics,” said Turner Broadcasting System chief research officer Jack Wakshlag.

Cable’s share performance should return to positive form during the second quarter 2010, said Wakshlag, as the broadcastnetwork TV season winds down and cable networks begin gearing up their summer original programming schedules.

1Q WINNERS AND LOSERS
Fox News Channel led the best of the rest of cable’s primetime performers for the quarter, averaging 2.3 million viewers, an increase of 3% over the prior year.

TNT finished fourth with a flat 2.1 million viewers, while ESPN finished fifth with 1.8 million viewers, up 20% from last year.

Rounding out the top 10 are Nick at Nite (1.8 million viewers, up 7%); TBS (1.7 million, down 7%); A&E (1.6 million, up 7%); History (1.4 million, up 14%) and ABC Family (1.4 million, up 5%)

Much like USA, kids-targeted network Nickelodeon extended its quarterly ratings winning streak to a whopping 60 consecutive quarters, averaging a network record 2.3 million viewers, easily besting sister service Nick at Nite’s 1.6 million average viewers over a 24-hour basis. Disney Channel chimed in at third with a 10% audience gain to 1.6 million viewers, while USA Network (1.4 million viewers, down 5%); and TNT (1.3 million viewers, up 9%) filled out the top five.

Despite heavy competition from the broadcast networks via the Olympics, a number of cable networks managed to deliver exceptional ratings performances.

Fox Soccer Channel posted the largest year-to-year increase of the quarter with a 71% increase to 41,000 viewers, followed closely by a pair of Discovery Communications- owned diginets, ID: Investigation Discovery (up 56% to 364,000 viewers) and Military Channel (a 40% increase to 176,000 viewers.)

Other network posting doubledigit increases during the quarter included Fuse (up 29%); TV One, Style and Mun2 (all up 25%); E! (24%); Nick Jr. (19%); CMT (18%); Oxygen, G4 and International Channel (all up 17%); Lifetime Movie Network (15%); History and Science Channel (14%); HGTV (13%); Food Network (12%); and Tru TV and The Weather Channel (10%).

Networks that struggled during the quarter included CNN, down a whopping 39%; Hallmark Channel (down 33%); GAC (29%); Golf Channel (26%); VH1 (25%); HLN (24%); Versus (21%); and TV Land (21%).

Fox Rules News Roost

FOX NEWS CHANNEL SILENCED all debate over which news channel was the cable industry’s most popular during the first quarter of 2010.

Fox News tallied its best first-quarter performance in its history, averaging 2.3 million viewers in primetime during the period of Dec. 28, 2009 to March 28, 2010, according to a Disney-ABC Television Group analysis of Nielsen Media Research.

That was up 3% over the 2.2 million viewers the News Corp.-owned network averaged during the same period in 2009.

Fox News also took top honors among all the key demos including the category’s key demo of 25-to-54- year-olds, where it more than doubled second-place MSNBC’s audience average (599,000 viewers vs. 272,000).

Fox News programming occupied the top 13 spots in the news category, led by Bill O’Reilly’s The O’Reilly Factor, according to network officials.

TV historian and former cable executive Tim Brooks said the current political discourse in the country tends to favor Fox’s more debate and talk news format.

“It benefits Fox News more that there’s great political turmoil, which we certainly have right now in the country,” Brooks said. “Fox has the sharper personalities and has the populist view and has seemed to gain momentum.”

While Fox was enjoying its best quarter, CNN suffered through one of its worst, dropping 39% of its 1.1 million first-quarter 2009 audience to finish at 691,000 viewers for the first three months of 2010 and falling into third place behind MSNBC. The NBC Universal-owned service, boosted by viewership from its February Winter Olympics coverage, averaged 811,000 viewers, although that was down from 958,000 in 2009.

HLN finished fourth among cable news networks, averaging 498,000 viewers, down 24% from 656,000 viewers in 2009, while CNBC finished fifth with 341,000 watchers, up 16% from 294,000 viewers last year.