Cable Catches Up To Broadcast In LA DMA.

Adlink has announced that their 44 cable networks now represent half of all the television viewership in the Los Angeles DMA. The July 2002 Los Angeles DMA Nielsen survey shows Adlink’s cable networks with 43 share points and the local broadcast stations with 43 share points, Sign-on to Sign-off. The Nielsen survey also showed huge year-to-year gains with 6 share points in Early Fringe, 3 in Prime Time and 4 in Total Day for Adlink’s 44 cable networks while local broadcast continued to decline.

“This greatly supports our belief that local cable advertising has been underutilized by the advertising industry,” states Bob McCauley, Adlink President. “With these networks, we empower our clients to send specific messages to a targeted audience. Now we know that those messages are reaching audiences equivalent to broadcast.”

Cable programming has seen record high ratings and new occurrences this summer. It began with MTV’s “The Osbournes” which earned a rating point as high as 5.4 in Los Angeles and now “The Anna Nicole Show” brings summer to a close with huge rating point of it’s own. According to Nielsen Media Research, E! Entertainment Television’s premiere of “The Anna Nicole Show” pulled a 5.5 preliminary overnight rating in 42 metered markets and an astounding 8.7 in Los Angeles cable households.

“This marks the end of a truly amazing summer for cable firsts,” remarks Jane Collins, Adlink Vice President, Research. “‘The Osbournes’ and ‘The Anna Nicole Show’ have both had broadcast-sized ratings and most recently, ABC announced that, for the first time ever, they will repurpose a cable program, USA Network’s ‘Monk.'”

Another reason for cable’s recent success is the quality programming found on cable. TNT had a strong start in June with the original movie “King of Texas” receiving a 3.7 rating in the Los Angeles DMA. The MTV Movie Awards delivered a 9.3 rating in Los Angeles — up from 6.0 in 2001. FX premiered its new police show “The Shield” this season, which not only generated a 3.5 rating; but also set a new standard for the quality of cable programming.

“Summer is statistically the strongest ratings period for Adlink’s 44 cable networks. Broadcast continues to air re-runs while cable networks offer original programming that garners more and more viewer share,” according to Collins. “There has been major year-to-year growth in July for the past three years and this year has followed that pattern to an exceptional high
point.”