As we have discussed in many pieces in this space, the nightly newscasts of the networks have seen their audience decline from about 60 million people in 1980 to 27-30 million today. We have explained just below that the network executives rationalize this decline by explaining that it stems from the rise of cable TV, implying that scheduling convenience is the most important factor in audience decline. This is untrue.

However, they are able to draw this incorrect conclusion because network TV has seen a substantial decline in its audience share since 1980 in many entertainment programs. We illustrate, with data from Nielsen ($$$):

Household share of TV’s number one program
1980: 52 share — Dallas (CBS)
1992: 35 share — 60 Minutes (CBS)
2003: 23 share — American Idol – Tuesday (Fox)

So it would ba logical to conclude that network newscasts would decline pretty much in step with the broader loss of network audience. Logical but incorrect.

It is true that the cable networks’ news has made up the 30+ million people lost to nightly news, according to network excutives. But a majority of those lost to the networks — 55% earlier in the year and greater now — have been lost to Fox News. Hence, the total picture, as of this writing, is that approximately 25% of the news audience of 1980 has migrated away from the network newscasts and their ideological equivalents on cable, in favor of the more conservative Fox News Channel. This figure of an ideological loss of audience of 25% is similar to the 22% of the audience that tuned in Fox or Fox News on election night on November 2, as this chart shows:

Thus, at least a quarter or so of the news audience of the Old Media has been lost to an ideological, not a logistical, alternative. Facing that reality would perhaps require the networks to rethink their approach to their news divisiions. Therefore, the critical thinking will not take place, as we have discussed before.

Let the decline continue!

This entry was posted on Friday, November 19th, 2004 at 3:26 pm and is filed under General, MSM, New Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.