PBS ratings bump Obama over McCain
David
Updated: McCain beats Obama. Unless...
by James Hibberd
UPDATED: If election night is half as close and contested as
Thursday's ratings race, we're in for a heckuva evening.
John McCain's speech was watched by more viewers than Barack Obama,
according to Nielsen Media Research.
The Republican nominee beat Obama's record-setting convention speech
viewership by 500,000 among broadcast and cable networks.
McCain's address at the Republican National Convention was seen by
about 38.9 million viewers. Obama received 38.4 million.
That means McCain's speech is now the most-watched in convention
history -- 41% higher than President Bush's acceptance speech four
years ago, and 1% higher than Obama's address last week.
But wait.
If you add in PBS -- which is tracked by Nielsen as meter-market
projections, but not counted among its regular national ratings sample
-- Obama beat McCain.
PBS estimated about 2.7 million viewers tuned in last night and 3.5
million watched Obama. So if you include those viewers, Obama beat out
McCain by an even slimmer margin, 41.9 to 41.6 million viewers.
Either way, a squeaker.
The usual practice is to use the numbers Nielsen announced. That's the
official count, since a different measurement system is used for PBS,
which unlike the others is not an ad-supported network. One could also
try including viewers watching C-SPAN (which isn't tracked by Nielsen)
or even online viewing. Given the amount of media attention that
convention coverage ratings have received over the past couple weeks,
with the whole Nielsen race becoming a sort of pre-election election,
there's always a few more ballots to be found somewhere.
The bottom-line point to extract from all these numbers is that last
week few would have predicted that McCain would draw an audience that
compares to Obama. Attendance of their live appearances have been
pretty unequal. By any viewership measurement, McCain managed to
roughly match his opponent last night, indicating that interest in the
candidates may not be as disproportionate as some have assumed.
Focusing strictly on the official Nielsen-reported networks, McCain
drew significantly more male viewers than Obama (16.2 million). McCain
also drew more white viewers (32.2 million), while Obama was seen by
more African Americans.
Though anticipation has been running high for McCain's address, the
speech also may have benefited slightly from a strong NFL lead-in on
NBC. Initially Republicans feared McCain might have to compete with
the game for viewers' attention. But the NFL match started early, then
put about 13.6 million viewers on the doorstep of NBC's 10 p.m.
coverage of McCain's speech.
Still, NBC has aired the most-watched convention coverage among the
broadcaster nets all week, and its numbers compared to rivals were not
much different than on previous nights. In other words: the game may
have helped, but it wasn't a major factor in McCain's massive
viewership (even with the NBC receiving an NFL lead-in, Fox News is
expected to win the network-by-network breakdown).
Also, with interest in his running mate Sarah Palin spiking viewership
for the RNC on Wednesday, the convention was able to gain some
significant momentum after losing its first night to Hurricane Gustav
coverage. McCain received 5% more viewers than his running mate.
Arthur Lipscomb
commentary or trivia I turned to CNN and MSNBC but when I wanted to watch
without talking heads or icons on the screen I turned to PBS.
Michael Black
And some say PBS should get its funding cut.
Michael
Anim8rFSK
Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:
Slashed to nothing.
--
Multiple root canals; hopped up on multiple pain drugs.
It's an explanation, not an excuse!
FDR
> In article <Pine.LNX.4.64.08...@darkstar.example.org>,
> Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 5 Sep 2008, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:
>>
>>> I watched the convention on multiple networks but mainly PBS. If I wanted
>>> commentary or trivia I turned to CNN and MSNBC but when I wanted to watch
>>> without talking heads or icons on the screen I turned to PBS.
>>>
>> And some say PBS should get its funding cut.
>>
>> Michael
>
> Slashed to nothing.
>
How about we slash govt funding of the airlines, trains, farms, and
other large corporations? I never hear that come up.
tricks...@yahoo.com
wrote:
> I watched the convention on multiple networks but mainly PBS. If I wanted
> commentary or trivia I turned to CNN and MSNBC but when I wanted to watch
> without talking heads or icons on the screen I turned to PBS.
I watched both conventions on PBS. PBS also showed (just snippets) of
demonstrators who made it inside the convention stadium. PBS also
covered on NOW about the journalists who who were outside filming the
protesters and how some of the journalists were arrested and
harddrives, laptops confiscated.
Steve Newport
other large corporations? I never hear that come up.
Yep-- start with the military and then move on to the industrial
complex. PBS should do more Broadway and less Doo-wop programming
though.