The Cable News Hierarchy
This week’s blog is a continuation of last week’s entry in which we define what a news consumer is, and how much news they watch or consume on any given day. We at Crowd React Media found that people consume news…a lot. For a refresher, here are some key takeaways from the piece:
- 94% of people we surveyed actively consume any type of news media. This is who we will define as ‘news consumers’
- 53% of news consumers on average consume 1-3 hours of news media per day.
- 23% of ages 18-39 are consuming 4-7 hours of news media per day. Combined with those consuming 8 hours or more (8 hours!), 35% of ages 18-39 are consuming at least 4 hours of news media per day.
- 26% of total news consumers are consuming more than 4 hours of news media per day.
- 75% of news media consumers are watching/streaming the news or news commentary.
- 65% of news consumers that watch the news, do so every day.
- Ages 60+ watch the most news every day out of any demographic, at 87%.
- Standard Cable/Satellite television is still the preferred way to watch the news at 60%. App/Streaming service is not too far behind at 52%
- Younger demo, ages 18-39, naturally prefers the newer technology with 65% using App/Streaming Service to watch the news.
So now you may be wondering as to what news people are watching. Let’s start out with their favorite cable/satellite channels.
Surprise! It’s Fox News.
Graph (below): Which of the following Cable/Satellite channels do you watch for news? (Select all that apply)
Fox News is the leading cable channel at 59%, followed by Local TV news at 50%. CNN is third at 49% while the other major cable news network, MSNBC, lags a good bit behind at 36% of news consumers who watch television.
Fox News is often considered a conservative network amenable to the right of the American political divide, with a generally older viewership. However, the presumed Fox News audience profile does not hold up under scrutiny. In our study, we found high levels of Fox News viewership among nearly all the major demographic groups surveyed by Crowd React Media in a recent study. Let’s take a look.
Graph (below): Who watches Fox News? (News consumers who have indicated they watch Cable/Satellite news)
First thing to note is that of the 18-39 demographic who watch cable/satellite news, 67% watch Fox News. Compare this to 56% of dedicated 60+ cable/satellite news consumers, who do the lion’s share of TV news watching – 87% of ages 60+ watch the news every day.
In our study we also asked people whether they were registered to vote. 89% of all respondents surveyed were registered to vote. We also asked them to which party they are registered. Registration among participants was varied and gave us a substantial sample to work with (Dem., Rep., Ind.). We then applied this demographic break to our study to determine the proportion of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents that watch the news (in this instance, Fox News).
Despite being the smallest percentage depicted in the above graph, nearly half of all registered Democrats who watch the news, watch Fox news (44%). Expectedly, a significant share of registered Republicans who watch the news (73%), watch Fox News. Let that sink in. 44% of registered Democrats are watching Fox News, a conservative network. One might say that Fox News’ formula of explicitly favoring one side over the other yet still attracting those of disparate political beliefs and attitudes is very much a winning one. CNN and MSNBC are outlets that cater to left-wing perspectives and news items. Yet they simply just do not perform as well with viewers across the board as Fox News. Here are a couple graphs to help us better understand Fox News’ dominance.
Graph (below): Who watches CNN vs. Fox News? (News consumers who have indicated they watch Cable/Satellite news)
The only demographic in which CNN enjoys a clear advantage over Fox News is the percentage of registered Democrats who watch CNN (63%) compared to registered Republicans who do so (22%). However, Fox News has doubled CNN’s share of people registered to the opposite party that watch (44% vs. 22%). Coupled with the fact that simply more people watch Fox News than CNN demonstrates their utter dominance in the TV news market.
And finally we have MSNBC:
Graph (below): Who watches MSNBC vs. Fox News? (News consumers who have indicated they watch Cable/Satellite news)
23% more people watch Fox News over MSNBC (59% vs. 36%). In fact, Fox News has the edge in every demographic category depicted in the above graph. This includes the proportion of registered Democrats. In our study, more registered Democrats watch Fox News (44%) than they do MSNBC (43%), a staunchly blue-aligned news network. Fox News is the current Cable News Champion.
Thanks for reading this edition of an ongoing series of blog entries on news consumption habits. Give us a follow on Twitter for more information & insights. Be sure to visit us at CrowdReactMedia.com in the meantime to peruse all our client services. Look forward to hearing from you in the future!
TL;DR
- Fox News is the leading cable channel at 59%, followed by Local TV news at 50%. CNN is third at 49% while the other major cable news network, MSNBC, lags a good bit behind at 36% of news consumers who watch television.
- Of the 18-39 demographic who watch cable/satellite news, 67% watch Fox News.
- 89% of everyone Crowd React Media surveyed in a recent study is registered to vote.
- Nearly half of all registered Democrats who watch the news, watch Fox news (44%).
- Fox News has doubled CNN’s share of people registered to the opposite party that watch (44% vs. 22%).
- 23% more people watch Fox News over MSNBC (59% vs. 36%). In fact, Fox News has the edge over MSNBC in every demographic category Crowd React Media detailed in their study on news media consumption habits.
- Fox News is the current Cable News Champion.
