2018 Network Nielsen Ratings (2024 Update)

[Charles Knox]

Originally Posted by stevea

TV Land was one of the few cable networks that did not lose audience, but the once-great Nick lost 14% at #45, to TV Land's #27. At #22, MeTV beat them both.

Cozi is impressive at #68 and is one of the few that gained viewers.

None of the diginets show up in the top 40 in the key demo, 18-49.

Probably because Cozi picked up Columbo. METV is hemorrhaging some viewers again this year. It could be due to the fact that a lot of the Sinclair owned networks replaced METV with Charge / Comettv in key markets.

[Alan Brady's Hair]

2023 rankings for some of the better-known diginets (average primetime audience):

21. MeTV 631,000
25. Grit 513,000
46. Bounce 253,000
58. Cozi 196,000
60. Start TV 190,000
67. Heroes & Icons 169,000
74. Laff 151,000
81. Defy TV 130,000
86. Antenna TV 114,000
90. Charge 102,000
91. Comet 101,000
92. Get TV 91,000
103. Catchy Comedy 69,000
114. Dabl 53,000
126. Story 40,000

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/mos...gs-1235850482/

Antenna TV's numbers remain much smaller than I would expect.

[stevea]

MeTV's loss was paltry compared with the legacy big 3 networks (or 2, since ABC went up a point).

On the political networks Fox News paid the price for firing Tucker Carlson, MSNBC upticked a little, and CNN has fewer viewers than MeTV. You can see why MeTV sticks with Westerns, with Grit's popularity.

Yes, Antenna TV is a surprise. Defy TV is several points ahead of them and who even heard of it? I've never seen it mentioned on this site. I wonder what Antenna TV views as their competition. The Weather channel? TUDN, whatever that is? At least they're beating Get TV.

Nick at Nite is a joke--they are way behind their spinoff network, TV Land. They live to keep their X/Twitter audience happy with Friends reruns.

Let's see--Dabl is at 53,000 viewers and that's a 10% loss. We'll see if Girlfriends will do better for them than Bob Vila. WTHR here dropped Cozi for Dabl a few years ago--great move, guys! Cozi does way better in ratings but I suppose Dabl is cheaper.

[Alan Brady's Hair]

Defy TV is several points ahead of them and who even heard of it?

Yeah, I had to look them up to see if they were over-the-air.

[biffbronson]

I'm not at all familiar with Comet. Practically all of the others listed in Post #32 (Defy included) I either currently receive or have in the past, and have watched at times. I feel pretty fortunate to have so much available free, over-the-air (yet I still spend inordinate amounts of time on YouTube).

I like when some of those have a particular focus, like when a network devotes weekends to biographies (Story TV unless I'm mistaken) or has a scheduled day for a reality program of interest (American Pickers on Dabl, Wednesdays).

There's some stuff I'm anxious to have return, the '60s British series The Avengers comes to mind as one I've not seen in quite a while.

Originally Posted by Charles Knox

METV is hemorrhaging some viewers again this year. It could be due to the fact that a lot of the Sinclair owned networks replaced METV with Charge / Comettv in key markets.

I have to say that over the past couple of years, I gradually reduced my MeTV viewing because I knew they were cutting scenes. Like everyone else here, I want the episodes to be as complete as possible, so I can't go for having stuff deliberately deleted to allow for more (or longer) commercial spots.

[icecream]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

I'm not at all familiar with Comet.

Comet is a sci-fi station, or at least was several years ago when I saw Andromeda on vacation.

[Charles Knox]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

I'm not at all familiar with Comet. Practically all of the others listed in Post #32 (Defy included) I either currently receive or have in the past, and have watched at times. I feel pretty fortunate to have so much available free, over-the-air (yet I still spend inordinate amounts of time on YouTube).

I like when some of those have a particular focus, like when a network devotes weekends to biographies (Story TV unless I'm mistaken) or has a scheduled day for a reality program of interest (American Pickers on Dabl, Wednesdays).

There's some stuff I'm anxious to have return, the '60s British series The Avengers comes to mind as one I've not seen in quite a while.



I have to say that over the past couple of years, I gradually reduced my MeTV viewing because I knew they were cutting scenes. Like everyone else here, I want the episodes to be as complete as possible, so I can't go for having stuff deliberately deleted to allow for more (or longer) commercial spots.

PlutoTV is probably their biggest competition right now for classic television fans. Minus the morning weekdays and Saturday schedule, they need to look at shaking up and overhauling their primetime and overnight schedule. Maybe even looking at investing into modern procedural shows to pickup better advertisers to help pay the bills (ugh). They need to drop the St. Jude , ASPCA, big Pharm adds and quick. Also Lose the 2hr All In The Family block on Sunday night and replace it with a family programming block, or make it a James Bond movie night.

[stevea]

For their position in the ratings, I totally agree there is something wrong with MeTV's ad sales.

Their level of advertising should be a few notches above Antenna TV, but sadly it's about the same.

[Charles Knox]

Originally Posted by stevea

For their position in the ratings, I totally agree there is something wrong with MeTV's ad sales.

Their level of advertising should be a few notches above Antenna TV, but sadly it's about the same.

I noticed Grit has the same problem with ads. The westerns are probably only popular with the 60-80 something demo and might even be hurting the channel as far as ad revenue and attracting a wider audience goes. I also noticed that the adds for LaffTV, Cozi and even H&I, are more mainsream products that are aimed at a younger audience.

They should probably move all the popular sitcoms such as Andy and the Beverly Hillbillies to the late afternoon / early evening and try something different with the weekday primetime hours.

Maybe even copy the Hallmark channel and go all out on holiday programming.

Right now, they should probably ditch a few redunant westerns and sitcoms that have been played to death. They could lose Big Valley, Have Gun Will Travel, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Rawhide and just double up on Gunsmoke, Bonanza , Wagon Train and Rifleman for the Saturday Western block All the Irwin Allen Sci-Fi shows could be dropped and replaced with a late night marathon of Dark Shadows.

[Alan Brady's Hair]

The list for 2024:

https://www.indiewire.com/news/analy...24-1235076096/

17. MeTV 602,000
20. Grit 482,000
44. Bounce 235,000
51. Cozi 183,000
56. Laff 159,000
57. Heroes & Icons 156,000
61. Start TV 148,000
66. Charge 135,000
77. Ion Plus 116,000 (formerly Defy?)
81. Comet 103,000
87. Antenna TV 97,000
93. Get TV 83,000
99. Dabl 73,000
105. Catchy Comedy 60,000
112. Story 50,000