The tide of Unscripted US networks keeps on rising – up 5% for our bucket 0f factual channels year-to-year.
But the boats are not all rising equally. Some are defying gravity and taking on water.
Here is the data and my topline impressions on the Factual channels that are gaining or losing ‘average prime time viewers.’
HIGHLIGHTS
Three highlights from among the winners are:
Oprah’s OWN
- OWN (+55%) is getting better and better at serving its target African-American female audience with positive programming.
- Welcome to Sweetie Pies is OWN’s most valuable nonfiction property. The season 3 premiere was the highest rated in the series history, though Tyler Perry is the biggest contributor to OWN’s turnaround.
- After Discovery invested around a half billion to relaunch its Health channel in a JV with Oprah, the OWN programmers are now getting the branding/content mix ‘just right’ – and the operation is reported to be cash positive.
Discovery
- A terrific performance by Shark Week led Discovery’s welcome ratings comeback (+17%).
- There was solid backing from Skywire Live and Naked and Afraid and others.
- But I notice that Discovery’s 4Q 2013 ratings are not maintaining the surge.
A&E
- Duck Dynasty is a mega hit and a trailblazer into ‘scripted unscripted.’
- A quick glance across the rest of the schedule, and there’s not much else that’s rising at A&E (up 11%).
- Meanwhile sister network History, which last year seemed to be heading into the stratosphere, is now grinding out modest gains (2%).
- Takeaway: It’s a ferocious battleground out there!
And highlights from the losers:
truTV
- truTV (down 22%) imitated the formats of successful series on other channels, making them slightly trashier. (Pawn Stars / Hardcore Pawn)
- However, as the original shows began to peak (for example, Pawn Stars and Storage Wars) the truTV knockoffs lost their sizzle.
- It still surprises me that Turner created the vaguely-branded truTV out of Court TV, leaving Discovery to jump into the evergreen, female-appealing Crime genre by launching ID (+4%).
- Another Takeaway: ID is no longer alone. MSNBC, A+E Networks, the broadcast networks and others are coming hard after ID’s Crime niche – and its producers!
U.S. Factual Channels
Average Quarterly Prime Time Audience
3Q’13 versus 3Q’12
(‘000)
Rating | Viewers | ||||
3Q’13 | 3Q’13 | 3Q’12 | +/- | % | |
| OWN | 0.5 | 426 | 275 | 151 | 55% |
| Discovery | 1.0 | 958 | 819 | 139 | 17% |
| A&E | 1.3 | 1,329 | 1,200 | 129 | 11% |
| Spike | 0.7 | 690 | 592 | 98 | 17% |
| Animal Planet | 0.6 | 551 | 477 | 74 | 16% |
| TLC | 1.0 | 943 | 876 | 67 | 8% |
| WE | 0.3 | 284 | 221 | 63 | 29% |
| HGTV | 1.1 | 1,057 | 999 | 58 | 6% |
| H2 | 0.4 | 254 | 201 | 53 | 26% |
| BET | 0.7 | 630 | 581 | 49 | 8% |
| IFC | 0.2 | 128 | 85 | 43 | 51% |
| DIY | 0.2 | 134 | 96 | 38 | 40% |
| MTV | 0.7 | 716 | 678 | 38 | 6% |
| History | 1.5 | 1,490 | 1,458 | 32 | 2% |
| Bio | 0.4 | 249 | 219 | 30 | 14% |
| Velocity | 0.2 | 118 | 88 | 30 | 34% |
| ID | 0.7 | 589 | 568 | 21 | 4% |
| Military | 0.3 | 164 | 145 | 19 | 13% |
| Travel | 0.4 | 351 | 334 | 17 | 5% |
| Fuse | 0.1 | 45 | 31 | 14 | 45% |
| Nat Geo Wild | 0.3 | 154 | 142 | 12 | 8% |
| Science | 0.3 | 233 | 225 | 8 | 4% |
| Fit & Health | 0.2 | 78 | 71 | 7 | 10% |
| Golf | 0.1 | 123 | 117 | 6 | 5% |
| Logo | 0.1 | 45 | 39 | 6 | 15% |
| Outdoor | 0.1 | 39 | 39 | – | 0% |
| G4 | 0.2 | 96 | 97 | (1) | -1% |
| GAC | 0.1 | 44 | 46 | (2) | -4% |
| Esquire | 0.2 | 146 | 155 | (9) | -6% |
| Oxygen | 0.4 | 308 | 319 | (11) | -3% |
| VH1 | 0.5 | 533 | 545 | (12) | -2% |
| E! | 0.4 | 528 | 540 | (12) | -2% |
| Ovation | 0.1 | 41 | 59 | (18) | -31% |
| Nat Geo Ch | 0.4 | 358 | 380 | (22) | -6% |
| Food | 0.9 | 860 | 893 | (33) | -4% |
| Weather | 0.2 | 169 | 212 | (43) | -20% |
| SYFY | 0.9 | 862 | 984 | (122) | -12% |
| TruTV | 0.7 | 647 | 829 | (182) | -22% |
| Factual Nets | 16,370 | 15,635 | 735 | 5% | |
METHODOLOGY
Our bucket of channels is not apples-to-apples:
- It includes channels that are dedicated to non-scripted, for example Nat Geo Wild and Discovery.
- And others like A&E and MTV that include Scripted in the mix.
- Some channels that schedule Factual are unrated, or were not rated last year.
Our quarterly, high-level snapshot is prepared with the assistance of John Morse, president of top research firm Byron Media.
Quantity Not Quality
- Most ad-supported channels sell media based on their target demos.
- And networks rate their performance (and those of their managers) quarter-to-quarter rather than year-to-year.
- Nevertheless, our measure of the quarterly average prime time audience is a useful tool for gauging relative scale of viewing and year-to-year trends.
The Factual Tide Keeps on Rising and Rising…
- The broad Unscripted category continues to grow at the expense of Scripted Entertainment, News, Kids and others.
- The year-to-year increase for DocumentaryTelevision.com’s bucket of Basic factual channels was a steady 5%.
Additional research: Dana Bramble
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