WorldTVNews.com
WorldTVNews.com
Here’s why CNN says its major ratings decline doesn’t matter so much
Everyone who subscribes to a standard cable or satellite TV package is paying about $5.76 a year for CNN and Headline News, about $5.88 for Fox News Channel and about $1.92 for MSNBC, according to media financial analysis firm SNL Kagan.
“Surveys have shown the typical home watches fewer than 20 channels a month for any substantial amount of time, yet it pays for as many as 100 or more,” says Tom Jicha of the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “When you go the supermarket for bread and milk, they can’t force you to buy cookies and beer, too, to get what you want. Why should TV programming be any different?”
Jicha says ESPN costs $3 or more per month.
Just think how many households, if given the choice and opportunty to save $36-$48 a year, would drop ESPN from their channel lineups.
May 27, 2010
WorldTVNews.com
NEW YORK - In theory, Time Warner executives say, CNN’s ratings could plunge to zero, and CNN could still rake in $250 million in revenue.
That’s one takeaway from a sales pitch by Turner Broadcasting chairman and chief executive Phil Kent at an “investor day” gathering. He used the following chart to show how small a slice of the revenue pie is generated by CNN’s declining prime-time ratings.
About half of the $500 million in annual revenue comes from monthly fees paid by cable and satellite TV subscribers - even if they don’t watch CNN and don’t want to pay for it.
