National News Viewing: Up On Cable, Down On Broadcast TV

National TV news viewing remains strong year-to-date -- even more than last year, despite election-year results.

Pivotal Research Groups says all network TV news viewing through November 12 -- on broadcast and cable -- is up 6% versus the same time period a year ago.

According to MediaPost, viewing among the three big cable networks -- MSNBC, CNN and Fox News Channel -- is 15% higher than a year ago, with the broadcast networks down 8%.

“During a year where most TV viewing is declining significantly, the genre represents a key area of growth for the industry,” writes Brian Wieser, senior media analyst for Pivotal.

Pivotal estimates national TV news programming in 2016 amounted to 44 billion person-hours of Nielsen live-plus-same day viewing across all dayparts and all viewers -- 12% of total national TV viewing hours and 374 billion person-hours, when looking at live-plus-seven days of time-shifted viewing.