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regard of viewers
But new Beta data shows inroads by Fox News
By Kevin Downey
The mood of America's TV viewing public in the weeks after Sept. 11 was a major concern of advertisers, who feared that viewer tastes might be forever changed.
If anything, Americans showed a reassuring predictability, and that became most apparent in the news shows they turned to, especially on cable.
As anyone who experienced the tragedies of September's terrorist attacks knows well by now, viewers overwhelmingly turned to CNN first among the cable news networks.
We now know why.
Based on all critical measurements of viewer perception, CNN and sister network Headline News remain tops among the cable news networks, according to a new Beta Research study of cable viewer attitudes.
This is so even as competitors Fox News and MSNBC continue to make inroads in what was CNN's once near-monopoly on cable news.
The survey of more than 1,000 people compares rankings of the cable news networks from 2000 to 2001, with 60 percent of the sampling done after Sept. 11.
Networks were scored on importance, program quality and perceived value.
CNN and Headline News scored No. 1 and No. 2 for both years.
"CNN’s ranking is much higher--and so is Headline News’s--than they were in the past," says Andy Klein, president of the cable television division at Beta Research.
While in the time since the attacks, Fox News has been pulling in higher ratings than CNN, largely to the credit of its in-your-face programming, CNN earned a ranking of 50 percent for importance in the Beta survey, versus 31 percent for Fox News.
It earned a 74 percent approval rating versus a 60 percent rating for Fox News for high-quality programming.
And in perceived value it earned $1.60 versus $1.13 for Fox News.
But as Klein notes, all the cable news networks showed dramatic improvements in viewer perception.
"Awareness and other measures for MSNBC, CNBC, and Fox News are all up significantly as well. They are pretty much the only networks with dramatic increases in most measures."
In some cases, they in fact showed stronger gains than CNN.
Among those surveyed who said CNN is the most important news network, there was a gain of about 14 percent, up from 44 percent last year to 50 percent.
Headline News increased 22 percent, to 44 percent from 36 percent.
Fox News and MSNBC tied with 31 percent of respondents saying they are important networks. The viewer perception for both networks is up 48 percent.
CNN and Headline News far outpace the other networks in perceived quality, with 74 and 72 percent. MSNBC, third at 62 percent, saw much stronger gains than either, at 24 percent versus 17 percent and 11 percent.
In perceived value, by contrast, CNN and Headline News were not only tops but clocked the largest increases, at 20 percent and 16 percent.
Beta’s viewer perceptions provide some insight into a cable network’s appropriateness for an advertiser's message.
The environment in which ads appear is something that advertisers typically consider but is one that took on added significance in the weeks following the terrorist attacks.
"Environment is now more important for those advertisers looking for engaged news viewers," says John Rash, senior vice president and director of broadcast negotiations at Campbell Mithun.
"Those services that give a clear perception that they are almost doing a public service stand to gain in the marketplace."
But that said, advertiser concern about the media environment in which ads appear seems to be waning in the months since the attacks.
Even viewer perception of cable networks is much as it was before.
The Discovery Channel, ESPN, and the History Channel still rank among the top networks on most qualitative measures.
"The events of Sept. 11 definitely impacted the results, as far as the news networks were concerned," says Beta Research’s Klein.
"But the other networks did not go down, in terms of perception. And many of the other networks kept their rankings from past studies."
While qualitative measures tend to fluctuate, they seem to have little impact on viewing levels.
The History Channel, for example, ranks as the third favorite network in the Beta study but isn’t among the 10 most-watched cable networks based on Nielsen ratings.
"Advertising investment will generally reflect audience interest," says Rash.
"There is still plenty of viewing that is done on networks that may not be perceived as having high-quality programming."
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CABLE SUBSCRIBER STUDY Perceptions of Cable News Networks (60% of respondents polled after events of Sept. 11) |
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| Subscriber Perception/Network |
2001 |
2000 |
% Chg |
| Important | |||
| CNN |
50% |
44% |
14% |
| Fox News Channel |
31% |
21% |
48% |
| Headline News |
44% |
36% |
22% |
| MSNBC |
31% |
21% |
48% |
| Program Quality – High | |||
| CNBC |
58% |
49% |
18% |
| CNN |
74% |
63% |
17% |
| Fox News Channel |
60% |
52% |
15% |
| Headline News |
72% |
65% |
11% |
| MSNBC |
62% |
50% |
24% |
| Perceived Value* | |||
| CNBC |
$1.17 |
$1.03 |
14% |
| CNN |
$1.60 |
$1.33 |
20% |
| Fox News Channel |
$1.13 |
$1.02 |
11% |
| Headline News |
$1.52 |
$1.31 |
16% |
| MSNBC |
$1.31 |
$1.18 |
11% |
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* Perceived value among each
network's own audience Source: Beta Research Corporation - Cable Subscriber Study, 2001 |
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December 17, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.
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