National TV News Trends – Viewing +26% -- Pivotal Research

Key observations from our analysis of live+same-day viewing of news programming through week 21 of the calendar year (ending Sunday May 21) include another significant acceleration viewing of news programming -- presumably related to increasingly intense interest in national politics. On our broad definition of the genre, viewing amounted to 929mm person-viewing hours during the 21^th week of 2017 vs. 739mm person-viewing hours in the year-ago period. YTD viewing of all news-related programming on national media properties was +13%, but was +26% for the week alone.

Notably, looking only at the three biggest cable news networks' -- Fox News, MSNBC and CNN -- viewing was up +57% during the most recent week, and are now +31% YTD. More than all of the gains for news was generated by these three networks, with others collectively declining. English-language broadcast networks' news programming accounted for 26% of viewing, and fell by -7% vs. last year during the week, in-line with year-to-date trends.

Additional observations follow:

• In context of all news programming, NBCU properties were up significantly vs. others, with the network group's share of viewing rising from 27% to 31%. Fox properties were down slightly, but equal to around 28% in both periods. Time Warner properties were up from 19% to 22%. Share declines occurred at each of CBS and Disney's ABC. Fox property shares are up significantly YTD to 32% vs. 28% at the same point in 2016. NBCU properties were also relatively stable YTD at 28%. Time Warner network audience shares are down YTD, from 21% through week 21 of last year to 19% this year.

• Trends look different if we only look at the three biggest pure-play networks. On this basis, Fox News lost significant share during the week (declining from 53% to 42%). Meanwhile, MSNBC gained significantly, rising from 22% to 29% share (better than the YTD gains from 20% to 25%) and CNN and rose from 26% to 29% during the week (better than the YTD decline from 28% to 25%).

• In absolute growth, Fox News was up +25%, MSNBC was up +114% and CNN was up +76%. As with last week, the gap in growth was massive between Fox News and both of MSNBC and CNN.

• Among primetime personality-driven / opinion programs, CNN's Anderson Cooper was the most highly viewed, with 24.6mm person-viewing hours up from 7.8mm in the year-ago period. Fox News' Tucker Carlson (now in the former time slot held by the Bill O'Reilly) viewing totaled at 22.1mm person-viewing hours, down slightly vs the prior week and not far from the 24.7mm average previous host realized during each week between the second and 15^th weeks of the year. Next was MSNBC's Rachel Maddow which aggregated 21.3mm person-viewing hours -- stable sequentially and also more than triple vs. the year-ago period. Fox's The Five came next with 18.5mm viewing hours, up nearly double from their result in the year ago period (although in a different time slot) and relatively stable vs. the prior week. MSNBC's Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell accounted for 17.1mm person-viewing hours, stable vs. the prior week and up 4x last year's level. Fox News' Hannity was next with 16.0mm person-viewing hours up vs.11.9mm last year.

• Looking at other key news and opinion-related programs airing during mornings, ABC's Good Morning America had 28.5mm person-viewing hours, down slightly vs. the year ago period. NBC's Today Show had 24.5mm person-viewing hours, down vs. 26.9mm in the week 21 of last year. Fox and Friends had 23.9mm person-viewing hours, up +43% year-over-year, while MSNBC's Morning Joe was up +103% to 17.9mm person-viewing hours.

FULL REPORT INCLUDING RISKS AND DISCLOSURES CAN BE FOUND HERE: TV Update 5-24-17-news.pdf

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