LONDON (Brand Republic) – CNN, the Time Warner-owned US cable news network, has seen its audience share overtake that of rival channels MSNBC and Fox News since the country’s presidential election was plunged into confusion last week.
CNN ramped up viewing figures of more than 2m between last Wednesday and Friday -– six times the amount of its 1999-2000 average -- according to Nielsen Media Research figures.
The research showed that MSNBC drew an audience of 921,000 and Fox News’s share totalled 761,000.
CNN has witnessed a steady audience decline since 1995. A new management team has been installed at the channel and was said to have been in discussions yesterday about plans to change the network’s programming line-up.
CNN is benefiting from increased advertising revenue and is said to be offering flexible pricing options to advertisers. The sales and marketing team said the network’s advertising revenues had increased by $1m since the vote last Tuesday.
The ratings boost comes just weeks after the resignation of CNN president Rick Kaplan in August. He was brought in to contribute his experience in long-format programming. The channel hoped that increasing its long-format content would help boost ratings.
However this approach is understood to have incurred costs with no significant ratings increase.
Last Friday, the network’s principal news anchor Bernard Shaw announced he was quitting the station after 20 years’ service to spend more time with his family and to write.