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.