Says who?
Um, says ABC. But the question is, are they right? And the answer is probably “No.”
Let’s think about it as one of those mind exercise problems.
First, what is ABC counting as “news”? Probably not just the seven World News Tonight broadcasts, but also Nightline, Primetime, 20/20, Good Morning America and the Sunday morning news programs. Possibly also any radio stations that carry ABC news reports and any local news programs on their O&Os (Owned and Operated) stations, which are all likely to be in big markets. Even if you restrict it just to national tv, collectively you have to be talking at least 25 million people. Maybe 50 million people.
So who else could compete with that?
NBC and CBS.
Period.
Newspapers are too local, even the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The big newsmagazines get readerships in the single digit millions, maybe ten million with passalong numbers. Radio? Are there any other nationally syndicated news programs that might rival the networks? PBS/NPR might have the coverage, but I doubt that it has the listeners. Cable news gets tiny ratings almost all of the time.
The Internet? Name an individual news site that gets 25 million unique viewers. Something like the Drudge Report mostly provides links to other news sites. Same with Google News.
So if all of ABC’s news shows beat out all of NBC’s and CBS’s - and the Nielsen ratings would be the source of that - then they probably have the goods.
I’ve noticed this as well, and then I heard NBC’s comeback;
ABC: “More Americans get their news from ABC news than from any other source”
NBC: “More Americans watch NBC news than any other news… (The claim continues after this)”
So, I think we must remember the following, Get and Watch are different words.
I think ABC includes Radio, Internet, Print Media (Hard Copy), and other forms of media, not to mention what ABC claims to be News Mickey Mouse and Sports Center included.
NBC seems to be more legit or, less false with their claim. What ever ABC assumes to be, I think that NBC has that claim set. If we take both given claims at face value.
The difference is Nightline
The ratings for the three network evening newscasts are pretty close. The ratings for the three network morning programs are not that far apart.
But Nightline is unique. It often gets higher ratings than either Letterman or Leno. On an average night, some 3-4 million homes have Nightline on. Five nights a week, that’s 20 million homes that ABC and CBS don’t even compete for.
Yet if their slogan relies on a compilation of ratings figures, a fault would be that many people that watch World News Tonight also watch Nightline later.
But the same fault would apply to NBC’s claim – people who watch NBC Nightly News also watch the Today Show, Dateline, etc.
These are marketing claims, not statistical science. Ratings is ratings.