The Change Mariner

Cable Tops Broadcast TV In Sweeps Period for First Time

CNN.com:

More U.S. households were tuned to cable television networks than broadcast networks last month during prime time, the first time cable has bested over-the-air competitors during a crucial sweeps period.

Ratings for the sweeps period, used by the networks to set ad rates, help determine how advertisers spend $30 billion a year to reach TV watchers. That's why cable and broadcast networks promote their most attractive programs during the sweeps period.

Cable has beaten broadcasters in the little-noticed July sweeps period in the past, when broadcasters air reruns or alternate programming and overall viewership is lower, and it has beaten the networks in a handful of non-sweeps periods.

But this is the first time it has topped the broadcasters in any of the closely followed February, May or November ratings periods, according to an analysis of Nielsen Media Research ratings performed by the Cable Television Advertising Bureau (CAB), an industry group of networks and cable operators.