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Big Three Network Evening News Viewership Has Dropped Like a Rock This Year
NewsBusters ^ | July 11, 2006 | Tom Blumer

Posted on 07/12/2006 5:52:38 AM PDT by teddyballgame

A year ago tomorrow, I did a post on the continued decline in evening news viewership at Big Three Networks NBC, ABC, and CBS, and made these observations and predictions about why that decline was taking place, and would continue (some of last year's text was slightly revised):

All three nightly broadcasts most likely lose money, when isolated from their morning counterparts (Today, Good Morning America, CBS Morning Show) and their documentary shows (Dateline, 60 Minutes, 20/20, etc.). At a minimum, none makes an acceptable level of profit.

BUT, the news operations of each of the Big 3 networks are very small parts of very large organizations (CBS-Viacom, NBC-GE, and ABC-Disney), so small that apparently no one at any of the three parent companies cares enough to do anything about the continued hemorrhaging in their evening new shows, as long as the news operations themselves are profitable.

So because those other parts of the news operations make money, the nightly news programs can chug right along, oblivous to normal profitability expectations.

The journalists who put together the nightly news programs could care less if the broadcasts are profitable. It's obvious that their agenda is more important.

Because of all of the above, the ever-shrinking audience for these broadcasts will be spoon-fed biased reporting, Bush bashing, and conservative-bashing for the foreseeable future.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abcnnbcbsdying; broadcastnews; msmwoes
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Dinosaur Extinction Alert: Viacomous, General Electrous and the Disnysourous
1 posted on 07/12/2006 5:52:41 AM PDT by teddyballgame
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To: teddyballgame

Wait till ratings and they lose $


2 posted on 07/12/2006 5:53:58 AM PDT by CPT Clay (Drill ANWR, Personal Accounts NOW.)
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To: teddyballgame

Shadenfreude...


3 posted on 07/12/2006 5:54:31 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: CPT Clay

Their relevancy is going right out the window with their audience.


4 posted on 07/12/2006 5:55:41 AM PDT by Disturbin (Welcome to society -- morons with keys)
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To: teddyballgame


5 posted on 07/12/2006 5:56:34 AM PDT by Joe Brower (The Constitution defines Conservatism. *NRA*)
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To: teddyballgame

They still do news?


6 posted on 07/12/2006 5:57:38 AM PDT by PBRSTREETGANG
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To: teddyballgame

Katie to the rescue!


7 posted on 07/12/2006 6:01:08 AM PDT by Nomorjer Kinov (If the opposite of "pro" is "con" , what is the opposite of progress?)
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To: Nomorjer Kinov

Freepers need a Deck of Cards of Liberal Media.

I for one cannot wait to mark mine:

CBS - PWNED!
NYTimes - PWNED!

etc.


8 posted on 07/12/2006 6:04:39 AM PDT by Stallone (Mainstream Media is dead. I helped kill it.)
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To: teddyballgame
Evening News Viewership, All Networks
November 1980 to November 2005


9 posted on 07/12/2006 6:05:02 AM PDT by Uncledave
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To: Uncledave
Evening News Ratings
November 1980 to November 2005


10 posted on 07/12/2006 6:06:07 AM PDT by Uncledave
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To: teddyballgame

Now is the time for Fox to launch a newscast on its affiliates at 6:30ET. I have a feeling they would clean up...


11 posted on 07/12/2006 6:06:48 AM PDT by rock_lobsta
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To: PBRSTREETGANG

The first few stories are "what happened today" news, skewed of course. After that, most of the issue/indepth stories are interviews with people who have written books on the subject (that just cameon the market), or hype for a new movie.


12 posted on 07/12/2006 6:07:25 AM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: Uncledave

The graph in #9 warms my heart.


13 posted on 07/12/2006 6:07:46 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (When you find "Sola Scriptura" in the Bible, let me know)
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To: Aquinasfan

Yes, especially when adjusted for US population increase over the time period.


14 posted on 07/12/2006 6:10:39 AM PDT by Uncledave
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To: teddyballgame

Dinosaurs indeed. Can't remember the last time I watched network or local news on TV. Info can be gathered so much faster and more reliably on the web. When a breaking news event nationally occurs now, I just log-in to FR. Can't be beat.


15 posted on 07/12/2006 6:11:00 AM PDT by IndyTiger
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To: teddyballgame
Seniors are about the only demographic still dedicated to the evening news broadcasts. Like my father, eighty-eight years young.

We got him a computer and even got him to go to training, but he says he couldn't get the hang of 'point-and-click' and never even checked his e-mail or surfed the web. So for him, it's still ABCBSNBC.....

16 posted on 07/12/2006 6:16:01 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: theDentist

It is absolutely unbearable how NBC hypes new Universal movies coming out without ever revealing to the sheeple they are owned by the same parent company. The latest example being "You Me and Dupree" - I'm already sick of it and it's not even been released yet.


17 posted on 07/12/2006 6:18:41 AM PDT by GnuHere
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To: teddyballgame

The American public has found that limiting viewership of network news has the benefit of raising IQ's across the country. Washington DC being the notable exception.


18 posted on 07/12/2006 6:20:16 AM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life)
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To: IndyTiger

90% of the shows on them are crap. And when they get a good show they run it to death.


19 posted on 07/12/2006 6:20:20 AM PDT by Hydroshock ( (Proverbs 22:7). The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.)
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To: Uncledave

I am persuaded that this fall will be responded by the BIG THREE's drive to start broadcasting in Spanish with English (aka American) subtitles scrolling across the bottom.


20 posted on 07/12/2006 6:22:17 AM PDT by zerosix (Native Sunflower)
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