Top Cable Networks Prime-time: ESPN & Total Day: Nickelodeon
ESPN was the #1 cable network for prime-time in the week November 24-30, 2008 with 3.490 million average prime-time viewers.
Nickelodeon once again took the #1 spot for Total Day cable viewers with an average of 2.430 million. Count on that continuing forever.
Below are the top 30 cable networks in each category. For now, its all that Robert and I will be posting. If you have requests for specific cable networks not listed post them in the comments and I will post them in the text later.
Prime-time Average Viewers (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| ESPN | 3,490 |
| USA | 2,860 |
| DSNY | 2,477 |
| HALL | 1,994 |
| TNT | 1,985 |
| FAM | 1,889 |
| TBSC | 1,830 |
| LIFE | 1,592 |
| NAN | 1,547 |
| FX | 1,528 |
| FOXN | 1,528 |
| A&E | 1,508 |
| TOON | 1,376 |
| SPK | 1,331 |
| HIST | 1,323 |
| SCIF | 1,306 |
| DISC | 1,168 |
| AMC | 1,157 |
| TRU | 1,134 |
| CMDY | 1,051 |
| ESP2 | 1,050 |
| HGTV | 975 |
| CNN | 952 |
| TLC | 917 |
| FOOD | 911 |
| MSNB | 901 |
| MTV | 891 |
| BRAV | 801 |
| BET | 783 |
| NFLN | 611 |
———
Total Day Average Viewers (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| NICK | 2,430 |
| DSNY | 1,574 |
| USA | 1,513 |
| NAN | 1,477 |
| TOON | 1,357 |
| TNT | 1,301 |
| ESPN | 1,239 |
| ADSM | 1,085 |
| LIFE | 1,033 |
| HALL | 1,025 |
| FAM | 1,001 |
| FX | 975 |
| TBSC | 964 |
| FOXN | 956 |
| A&E | 900 |
| SPK | 781 |
| HIST | 762 |
| DISC | 762 |
| TRU | 744 |
| AMC | 702 |
| CNN | 683 |
| SCIF | 656 |
| FOOD | 628 |
| TVLD | 618 |
| HGTV | 569 |
| MTV | 567 |
| CMDY | 563 |
| TLC | 519 |
| MSNB | 495 |
| BET | 480 |
TV Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
I loved the full list, but I imagine it was a pain to type up. Maybe quarterly?
I assume none of the HD nets have signed up to be measured by Nielsen. In you guys’ opinion, would their viewership (I’m thinking specifically of HDNet, Universal, Palladia and the now-defunct Mojo) be anything worth reporting?
Chris, the full list we get is the top 75 cable nets and I didn’t see any of those on the list. Although they are all abbreviated which could have caused me to miss them.
Bill, we only see the “basic” cable ranker. None of the HD only channels are considered “basic cable”
I am curious about the primetime numbers for National Geographic Channel, WGN America, and History International. Do they list the numbers for IFC? Not sure they would since that channel does not really air commercials. A couple weeks ago my cable company added a channel called CHILLER. It is owned by NBC and is quite good, wonder if you saw any numbers for that channel. Thanks!
David, since the only reason Bill didn’t post those number is probably because of me, I thought I’d chime in and respond. I don’t want to risk too much of Nielsen’s ire and have them tell us not to post *any* of their data. Sorry, but I’d rather have a website with a lot of data, (though not all the data) than no website at all.
I am curious…I used to see a list of all the networks posted on a website…and networks such as GSN were listed. Since the only ratings released by GSN were for their Sunday night programming, I’m curious to see if their ratings have increased since GSN Live was introduced, and by how much…I know they were at a dismal 0.2-0.3 for a while. They must be at a better rating by now.
Julia, apparently still the same:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/11/18/espn-nickelodeon-lead-cable-networks-november-10-16/8312