Robert earlier had a post on the Imus premiere day ratings, but for his first week’s average to beat Squawk Box, even in just average viewers is surprising to me.
Imus in the Morning averaged a .2 rating and 148,000 viewers P2+ in its 6-9 a.m. timeslot for the week of October 5-9.
That was good enough to just beat CNBC’s Squawk Box, which averaged 145,000 viewers P2+.
lots more information where that came from at Broadcasting & Cable.
We do have Squawk Box ratings as part of our daily cable news ratings, but sadly we do not get Fox Business ratings.
is this the first time Fox Business beat CNBC since it launched?
Tommy, since we have no other information on Fox Business ratings other than this B&C article and the one Robert linked to earlier, I have no idea!
What are the chances or the criteria for Neilson to include FBN in the ratings? I don’t understand why CNBC would be counted but not FBN. Is FBN that new? Sorry, I rarely watch it, so I don’t know how long it’s been around compared to the others.
MikeB, the information we have about the availability Fox Business News ratings is as follows, directly from our friends at Nielsen:
We will release Fox Business Network ratings to the press, as well as other networks ratings, if they have at least a 0.1 rating, which is Nielsen’s minimum reporting standards. One thing to note is that Fox Business does not subscribe to our daily syndicated ratings service, which our clients refer to as “overnights”, so you might not see their ratings touted publicly as much as other networks.
Altho it skews REALLY old. The B&C article doesn’t mention the 25-54 demo, but even the premiere only managed 9,000 compared to CNBC’s avg of about 54,000. Squawk also beats it in the 35-64 demo: 73,000 for Imus premiere vs 96,000.
Does this ratings comparison really matter that much?
CNBC commands advertising dollars, because it delivers non-traditional high net worth viewers interested in profitable investment products.
Imus seems so far out of that core that can you really compare the too? Are more investors and traders really watching Imus than Squawk Box? Are advertisers going to be more interested in Imus than Squawk Box? Probably not. So while their tiny ratings score is better, they are pretty far outside their combined niche.
Other reporting shows CNN’s American Morning and MSNBC’s Morning Joe way ahead in viewership than Imus. You reported only Imus ahead of Squak Box. Is that the same or different than when he was at NBC and Squak Box was on opposite him, or was that the only comparison you chose to make?
Chicken, I think it has more to do with Fox Business Channel vs CNBC. Both are business channels and should be targeting the same audience. The B&C article is trying to compare apples to apples. I agree with C, Imus doesn’t really seem like his audience is exactly the Wall Street type viewers. Imus has a rabid following, FBC only put him on the air there because 1 – they need the ratings, and 2 – because he fits the Murdock mold so to speak in his political views.
If CNBC went to a format of Faber and Kernen, and stopped having Kernen play a role of the silly neighbor over for a cup of coffee, and allowed him to just do serious work, I would return to Squawk. We need business news, not nonsense. If we want nonsense, now the preferred alternative is Imus, but with him we also get business news interspersed by FBN staffers. I am so happy to have no interest in turning on CNBC anymore. It was such a hassle leaping for the remote to mute that imbecile Cramer.
It should also be noted that FBN, in addition to having Imus now, has many lovely lady reporters working there. I mention this because it’s an interesting little factoid about who their target demo might be… and because I know it to be true as an occasional fan of the FNC late late night show Red Eye, which regularly brings on the women of FBN. … Just saying, don’t shoot the messenger.
FBN is new and a preimum Cable network so they haven’t got there foot in the ground quite yet.
OH! This must be why. I keep seeing the nighttime numbers being DOMINATED by Fox, garnering more than the competition combined, and it’s been this way for years. Why would a competitor keep pumping money into a (clearly) losing news department?
I musta overlooked these morning numbers.
News departments never cover all the bills of a fully-fledged network, and that’s what normally keeps them funded. And in these days of lazy, biased coverage (and a second decade of Mr Magoo coverage of Rush Limbaugh) you’d think more of these losers would drop off.
Meanwhile, if there’s *any* timeslot where the competition still prevails, I can see any network head thinking it’s still of-value.
See? Stories like this are why I value this website.
Imus does not compete with CNBC in any way. They have totally different demos.
I’m sure if CNBC put Howard Stern on in the same time slot he and CNBC would beat Imus.
Ailes might as well turn Fox Business into a Fox Headline News channel.
If Fox Business Network hired Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer, but let them speak their mind instead of muzzling them like CNBC, then they would easily trounce CNBC in ratings and CNBC would be dead.
The REAL comparison for Imus should be the general cable morning shows, because from what I saw last week….business content is kept to a relative minimum. Reading of the headlines, slight discussion, and then back to Imus’ ramblings. Furthermore, after 9am it seems that no one really watches Fox Business because their audience fell dramatically, back into the low 5 digits (31,000).
And technically, if you strip out the first debut day (Monday), Imus LOST to Squawk Box Tues – Thurs, and the demos were extremely poor (although they don’t matter as much on a biz network).
And then three will be John Stossel on FBN. Which I think wastes his talents and drawing power. I think Stossel should be on FNC. Click on my name for my little campaign to make that happen.
MikeB:
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We wanted to increase our fleet size to 50 this year but that goal never had a chance. I’m sorry to hear about your business but perhaps we could talk via e-mail and might discover we could help each other.
Visit my website by clicking on my name then find the contact link in the nav bar to drop me a line.
Who ever hired Imus is a genius. Plus he has a vendetta at NBC, so it will be interesting.
FBN is only available with digital cable, so the comparison with CNBC is not even close to accurate. Just wait until FBN is actually available in the millions of households that now have nbc! How painful it will be for the “great” nbc, and all their fellow nbc’ers to watch their viewership go even further down the drain…yay… Go Imus!
FBN is available in plenty of homes, yet its ratings are still in the dump. A better comparison to FBN would be CNBC World a sister channel to CNBC.
Fox News targets low demos, CNBC targets higher demos, most people with money including most rich republicans prefer to live in blue states or at least blue parts of red states.
FBN is destined to become Fox news 2 aka Fox Headline News aka FOX HLN.
I heard John Strossel is going on FBN. If that’s true, that would certainly boost FBN’s ratings. Plus some cable companies that previosly did not have FBN are now offering it in standard channel packages. If I were CNBC, I’d be worried
FBN in hi-def is great to watch but I am a NEWS junkie not a buisness exec up on Wallstreet. Of course all of us junkies go to work after 3-6 or so in all time zones so it makes sense that the regular fox viewers don’t switch back on till prime time. Ratings during the day are based upon non-working, stay at homes, ETC. If the “I” man was “delayed” till 6-9 am on the west coast, bet it would really be interesting.
Good for Don Imus, Good for Fox Business Network.
Life is good in the Imus World. As a supporter of a new and more subdued Imus demand your cable Company receives The Fox Business Network. It’s a must see. “MY OPINION”
Imus, combined with Stossel, will get more people to notice FBN, which in turn could increase their ratings. Only been around for two years so this is still a fledgling network. It is a good risk for them to take!
Lucky for Cnbc most viewers can’t get FBN – Fox is the only non-socialist channel …..
I can say this. My days of watching AND listening to Imus are over. I can’t bear to hear him say that he likes the talking heads at FOX (O’Reilly, Beck). He has always been a man unto himself. Now, because of money, he joins FOX. He has lost integrity.