Wall-to-Wall Royal Baby Coverage Didn't Do Much to Boost Cable News Ratings
Not as much as the intensity of the coverage would've suggested
Great Britain's yet-to-be-named prince made his TV debut just a few hours ago, with Prince WIlliam and Duchess Catherine stepping outside London's St. Mary's Hospital for a small press appearance -- but the infant has been a hot topic for cable and broadcast viewers since early Monday morning.
The cable news ratings battle for royal baby enthusiasts saw only key wins in total day and primetime for Fox News Channel -- while breaking news of the actual birth gave CNN an advantage in the targeted adults 25-54 demographic during the 3 p.m. hour. Comparisons to the previous Monday don't shed much light on growth, as most news outlets were still heavily covering fallout of the George Zimmerman trial, but FNC, CNN and MSNBC were all up slightly from year-to-date averages.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
George and James are the odds for the name for bookie-junkie England.
There's a surprise.
I had 'Gordie' and 'Vito' myself as long odds.
I lost money.