Basic Gains vs. Olympics Coverage
Despite the world's focus on Salt Lake City, basic cable racked up another
gain during the second week of the Winter Olympic Games.
The industry averaged a 25.2 household rating in primetime Feb. 18 through
24, a 1.6 percent increase from the 24.8 rating it garnered Feb. 19 through 25,
2001, according to a Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau analysis of Nielsen
Media Research data.
That performance translated into a 5.2 percent rise in delivery to almost
26.7 million households from 25.3 million.
For the second week of the recently completed Winter Games, rights-holder NBC
scored 150.6 percent and 160.3 percent surges to a 20.3 rating and an average
delivery of 21.4 million households, respectively.
All of the other broadcast networks, save for United Paramount Network (up 13
percent to a 2.6 household rating), sustained erosion last week.
According to the CAB analysis, during the first full week of the Games --
Feb. 11 through 17 -- basic cable registered a 2.8 percent increase in ratings
to a 25.5 average household rating in primetime and a 6 percent advance in
delivery to 26.9 million homes.
For its part, NBC's ratings (sans the boost provided by the opening ceremony
Feb. 8) leaped 103.5 percent to a 17.3 household average and showed a 109.4
percent improvement in delivery to 18.3 million homes versus the Feb. 12 through
18 period a year ago.
On the demographic front, basic cable also recorded significant advances
versus the 1998 Winter Games.
According to a Turner Entertainment Research analysis of Nielsen data, the
medium registered a 44 percent increase among adults 18 through 49 and 42
percent amelioration among adults 25 through 54 in primetime over the course of
the Salt Lake City Games (Feb. 8 through 24) versus its counterpart from Nagano,
Japan, four years earlier (Feb. 6 through 24, 1998).
Turner Network Television and TBS Superstation were tied for first among
adults 18 through 49 with a 1.0 rating during the 2002 Olympics.
That duo was joined by Lifetime Television as the adult 25-through-54
leaders, each averaging a 1.1 during the Salt Lake City Games.
Basic cable garnered a 34 percent jump over the past two weeks in aggregate
ratings growth versus Nagano, according to the Turner
analysis.