TNT takes '05 basic cable ratings crown
Turner Network Television takes this year’s crown for total viewers in key demographics among all basic cable networks for 2005, according to Nielsen Media Research data. The channel's "The Closer," the most-watched original cable series of the year, was credited with pushing the network to the top. USA Network placed second for the year increasing overall viewership by 2 percent over 2004, followed by Nick at Nite (up 4 percent), ESPN (down 3 percent) and Fox News Channel. Links: Chicago Sun-Times – TNT Claims basic cable crown, Adweek – TNT, USA Win Cable Ratings with Original Series, Yahoo!TV – TNT Wins cable race for a 4th year
2005 Cable News Ratings
Speaking of FNC, in 2005, they were still #1 and CNN was still #2 while MSNBC and Headline News battled for #3. O’Reilly leads the pack, with the most viewers overall and among the 25-54s. Fox News had 11 of the top 12 shows in 2005. Only CNN’s Larry King Live busts in, at #6. This is the fourth year in a row at the top for FNC. Link: Mediabistro.com - TVNewser 2005 ratings
ABC Bids Farewell to Monday Night Football after 35 years
One door closes and another is opened. Tonight, the NFL bids farewell to ABC, with the New England Patriots playing the New York Jets. This is the second longest-running series on network TV and it will shift to ESPN beginning next season. ESPN is reported as paying approximately $1.1 billion over eight seasons for the Monday night contract.This is a true win for Cable for ratings and advertising revenues. As the industry continues to gain more high profile programming, hopefully they will also improve their ability to sell out premium inventory.
UPDATED - 12/27/05: Although Frank Gifford stated during the broadcast that "It's going to cable, what's the difference?" Madden disagreed and argued that the shift to ESPN is a milestone. "It's a big deal"! ABC Sports was once what new generation thinks of ESPN. It was the most innovative and biggest force in Sports Television. But those days are gone and the pass off of this program marks the final torch being handed down to ABC's younger sibling and new King of Sports TV.(Picture above - Courtesy of Mike Segar/Reuters) Fans at the Jets-Patriots game paid tribute to the late Howard Cosell as ABC broadcast its final "Monday Night Football" game last night. ABC hands off the franchise to ESPN next season. Link: New York Times Dec 27 - With a Dandy Curtain Call, ABC Signs Off on 'Monday Night Football'
Fastest growing websites year-over-year
Nielsen//NetRatings announced the fastest growing Web sites among the top 10 Web brands for November 2005. Apple ranked No. 1 according to year-over-year growth in November 2005, climbing 57% over November last year, Driven largely by the popularity of the iTunes music service and software. Google and Amazon also saw significant year-over-year increases, growing 29% and 16%, respectively. Longtime leader Yahoo attracted the largest unique audience, garnering nearly 104 million unique visitors during the month, and growing 10% year-over-year. "Among the top Web brands, fierce competition for share of online visitors continues to be a catalyst for the launch of new products and features," said Gerry Davidson, senior media analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "These additions appear to be spearheading much of the top Web brand growth, because they keep visitors interested and engaged," he continued.
Comparing all sites with at least 1 million visitors in November, the PhotoBucket photo-sharing site saw the largest growth — a 16-fold increase to 15.6 million visitors, from 983,000 last year. Social networking sites MySpace and Facebook had the second- and third-highest growth, respectively. Wikipedia, an encyclopedia that lets volunteers add and change entries regardless of their expertise, was ninth on the list, nearly quadrupling its traffic. Link: Nielsen//NetRatings Full Report
December 2005 – The Turning point
The shift of advertising dollars from passive, broadcast media to interactive and on-demand media is taking place at a faster clip than earlier shifts from radio to network TV or from network TV to cable.
For those companies that didn’t get it a year ago, let’s hope that they get it now. Consumers are finally in control of content: they are creating it, consuming it and retransmitting it. Very soon, just about every type of content is going to be sliced, diced and presented to consumers in whatever format they want, whenever they want it, wherever they want it." In the coming year there will be an increased push to customize content for VOD and the broadband platform with the question still to be answered: Just how best do we monetize these new assets in the digital marketplace.
Link: Adweek 12/19/05 – They want the world, and They want it now
Turner Network Television takes this year’s crown for total viewers in key demographics among all basic cable networks for 2005, according to Nielsen Media Research data. The channel's "The Closer," the most-watched original cable series of the year, was credited with pushing the network to the top. USA Network placed second for the year increasing overall viewership by 2 percent over 2004, followed by Nick at Nite (up 4 percent), ESPN (down 3 percent) and Fox News Channel. Links: Chicago Sun-Times – TNT Claims basic cable crown, Adweek – TNT, USA Win Cable Ratings with Original Series, Yahoo!TV – TNT Wins cable race for a 4th year 
