In Depth
Nick at Nite, Hallmark Tops in Viewer Retention Through Ads
Nick at Nite had the highest retention of viewers through commercial breaks of any network in cable for the first quarter of this year. The Hallmark Channel placed second, followed closely by the Weather Channel and TVLand.
Advertising buys are based on Nielsen’s C3 commercial ratings, which measure how many people view commercials during live programming and programming watched on a delayed basis for up to three days. The different between the live ratings and the C3 ratings shows the proportion of viewers watching a network who also watch the spots that advertisers pay for.
Hallmark’s executive VP for ad sales, Bill Abbott, said, “Again, we are very happy to see the excellent C3 ratings results for the first quarter, which reinforces what we already know, that our viewers stay tuned to watch the ads. Commercial retention has long been one of our strongest points of differentiation in the marketplace.”
The following chart shows the commercial retention of the top cable networks tracked by Nielsen.
| C3 Prime-Time Audience Retention, First Quarter 2008, Adults 18-49 | ||
| Rank | Program Originator | % Program to Commercial Retention |
| 1 | Nick at Nite | 95.5 |
| 2 | Hallmark Channel | 93.2 |
| 3 | The Weather Channel | 92.5 |
| 4 | TV Land | 92.1 |
| 5 | The Cartoon Network | 91.4 |
| 6 | truTV | 91.1 |
| 7 | Home and Garden TV | 91.1 |
| 8 | TBS Network | 91.0 |
| 9 | USA Network | 90.7 |
| 10 | Black Entertainment TV | 90.4 |
| 11 | ESPN | 90.4 |
| 12 | ABC Family | 90.3 |
| 13 | Lifetime Television | 90.3 |
| 14 | Fox | 90.2 |
| 15 | Turner Network Television | 90.0 |
| 16 | Comedy Central | 89.8 |
| 17 | Animal Planet | 89.7 |
| 18 | Golf Channel | 89.7 |
| 19 | Spike TV | 89.3 |
| 20 | CBS | 89.2 |
| 21 | A&E Network | 89.1 |
| 22 | ESPN2 | 88.9 |
| 23 | Sci Fi Channel | 88.8 |
| 24 | The History Channel | 88.8 |
| 25 | Fox News Channel | 88.6 |
| 26 | Versus | 88.5 |
| 27 | ABC | 88.4 |
| 28 | Speed | 88.2 |
| 29 | Discovery Channel | 87.9 |
| 30 | Cable News Network | 87.7 |
| 31 | NBC | 87.5 |
| 32 | FX | 87.2 |
| 33 | Travel Channel | 86.9 |
| 34 | Oxygen Media | 86.8 |
| 35 | Food Network | 86.7 |
| 36 | CMT | 86.7 |
| 37 | Superstation WGN | 86.7 |
| 38 | AMC | 85.9 |
| 39 | CW | 85.9 |
| 40 | TV Guide Network | 85.3 |
| 41 | Headline News | 85.0 |
| 42 | TLC | 84.8 |
| 43 | MSNBC | 84.8 |
| 44 | VH1 | 84.5 |
| 45 | MTV2 | 84.4 |
| 46 | Bravo | 84.0 |
| 47 | E! Entertainment TV | 83.7 |
| 48 | CNBC | 83.2 |
| 49 | MTV: Music Television | 82.4 |
| Rankings are for Monday-Sunday, 8-11 p.m., Dec. 31-March 30 | ||
| Source: Hallmark Channel analysis of Nielsen data | ||
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Comments 1
Anthony
Hey Nick we will be forced to watch other programs
if you continue to cut off the end with commercials
Thank You