Ratings Records for History, ABC Family, NBC.com
Strong viewership gains in September help to boost networks; NBC.com gets lift from full episodes.
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/1/2008 3:00:00 PM
Cable operators continued to boast record third-quarter primetime ratings, driven by strong viewership gains in September.
The History Channel said Wednesday that its 18-49 viewership was up 25% in September over September 2007 to an average 411,000 viewers. For the third quarter, the network's 18-49 viewership was up 6% to a record 501,000 viewers.
ABC Family said its third quarter also recorded a record in 18-49s (587,000 viewers), as well as other key demos. In fact, it was its second-best quarter ever, behind only the Christmas-stunting-driven fourth quarter of 2007, according to the network.
The third quarter saw some records broken online, as well.
According to NBC Universal, NBC.com shattered its record for unique visitors in September, recording 25 million. Its previous monthly high was 17.4 million.
Helping to drive that was streaming of full episodes of TV shows, as well as short-form video. Together, they accounted for 8.9 million views, or almost one-third of those 25 million views. Surfers also watched an average 84.3 minutes of full episodes in September, up 28% from September 2007. That worked out to 29 million full episodes streamed, triple the number in September 2007.
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