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during worst of strike Twenty-six networks grew by 10 percent or more Mar 27, 2008 The recently ended writers’ strike, a disaster for broadcast, turns out to have been a boon for cable. Cable network viewing soared during the recently ended first quarter, according to new research released yesterday by Turner Networks, as the broadcast networks loaded up on reality shows and repeats. TBS took the quarterly primetime win among 18-34s, averaging an all-time best of 700,000, up 33 percent over last year. And in total-day viewing, Nickelodeon set a new high with an average 2.28 million viewers. All told, 26 cable networks grew at least 10 percent during first quarter and 35 networks had their best-ever first quarter performance among adults 18-49, including truTV (formerly Court TV), Bravo and TV One. Season to date, ad-supported cable is up 6 percent over last year, while the Big Four broadcast networks are down 15 percent, based on live-only viewing. Of course, as broadcast points out, while cable may have breadth, broadcast has depth. Nearly all of the most-watched shows remain on broadcast. During the most recent week of March, the top cable show ranked only No. 54 overall among 18-49s, and cable had just 94 of the top 100 shows, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising. Some of the smallest cable networks continue to show some of the biggest gains, a trend that’s been visible for several years. BBC America had the highest year-to-year growth, increasing its 18-49 primetime audience 109 percent, according to Nielsen numbers crunched by Turner. Nick at Nite, WE, Investigation Discovery and ESPN News all tied for second in growth at 40 percent. Of the five networks, only NAN is a top-10 channel. TBS’s gains came mainly courtesy of two new comedies, repeats of NBC’s “The Office” and “My Name is Earl,” which made their cable debuts during first quarter. They quickly became the Nos. 1 and 2 sitcoms on cable, giving TBS all of cable’s top five, along with “House of Payne,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Friends,” and eight of the top 10. MTV had the top new show on cable, “Randy Jackson’s Best Dance Crew,” which has its finale tonight. The show is averaging 1.6 million 18-49s, just ahead of No. 2 “Lewis Black’s Root of all Evil” on Comedy Central and History Channel’s “Ax Men.” Bravo’s “Project Runway” was the top-rated show overall on ad-supported cable during first quarter, followed by FX’s “Nip/Tuck.”
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