CNBC ratings tumble 44%
News cabler broadened some of its editorial content
In year-end Nielsen Media Research ratings, the financial news net suffered a 44% drop in its total-day coverage vs. the previous year.
Its 7-10 p.m. primetime sked, which the net revamped in July, remained flat compared with the first half of the year with an average of 224,000 viewers.
While CNBC believes that the Nielsen ratings don't reflect the appeal to advertisers of its affluent, on-the-move auds, it has broadened some of its editorial content. Perhaps in an effort to reach out to the casual investors who may have ditched the net when the markets went south, it covered the California dockworkers strike and aired more consumer-oriented fare such as the five-day doc series Price of War."
Delivering to core aud
"CNBC continues to deliver to its core audience -- executives and senior-level people," said Chris Geraci, director of national broadcast at ad agency OMD. "But does it hurt? Only that we're always looking for a good story, not a negative one."
The net has not seen a very positive story yet with anchor Brian Williams, who became exclusive to CNBC in July and shifted from his timeslot on the net from 10 to 9 p.m.
The heir to the "Nightly News" throne has brought up ratings in the timeslot by a mere 4% to 250,000 viewers vs. the first half of 2002.
One of Williams' lead-ins, "Kudlow & Cramer," has seen a 27% spike compared with the first six months of the year, however.
CNBC rivals Bloomberg and CNNfn aren't in enough households to be rated by Nielsen.
