Fox News Channel won the first-quarter all-news-network ratings war,
posting its largest lead yet on rival Cable News Network.
FNC pulled a 0.9 primetime Nielsen Media Research rating during the first
quarter, topping CNN's 0.7. While FNC jumped 80 percent in ratings from the same
period last year, CNN fell 13 percent.
MSNBC, CNBC and CNN Headline News were all flat compared with last year.
MSNBC and CNBC both posted 0.4 ratings in primetime, while Headline averaged a
0.2 rating.
In total-day ratings, FNC and CNN tied, each with 0.4 ratings. FNC was up 33
percent from last year, while CNN was flat with last year. The other news
networks were also flat versus last year. CNN and CNBC both averaged 0.4
ratings, MSNBC pulled a 0.3 and Headline averaged a 0.2 rating.
CNN emphasized that it counts more subscribers than FNC, so it still beat FNC
in households. CNN averaged 588,000 households in primetime compared with
507,000 for FNC.
CNN also said it beat the competition during its coverage of breaking-news
events, such as the California school shooting and the announcement of National
Association for Stock Car Auto Racing legend Dale Earnhardt's death.
FNC has tied or beaten CNN in every month since October.
In March, the upstart beat CNN in households despite the latter's
subscriber-count advantage.
