Speeches and Interviews
Audiences to CBC Television Supper Hour News Programs
HEADLINES
- CBC Television's share of the early evening news audience is less than half of what it was a decade ago. During the 1990's, it dropped from 28% to 13%.
(See Table 2.)
- Recently published reports about the comparative audiences of The National and the supper hour programs are inaccurate. Direct comparisons can be difficult or misleading, since one is comparing a single national program to a group of local programs.
Nevertheless, it is clear that The National attracts a larger audience than the supper hour programs do collectively in the markets where they both appear across the country. This year, the season average audience for The National in these markets was 608,000, compared to a season average audience of 489,000 for all of the supper hour programs combined. (See Table 3.)
- Nationwide, CTV's early evening news programs outdraw CBC's by a factor of almost three-to-one. This year, the season average audience for the CTV early evening news programs was 1,221,000, compared to 489,000 for CBC.
In qualitative terms, more than twice as many Canadians think CTV has "the best local news" as say this of CBC. By contrast, CBC clearly outranks CTV for "best international news" and "best national news."
- CBC's supper hour programs continue to show audience erosion. Their season average audience has dropped by almost 25% in the last three years alone: from 640,000 in 1997/1998, to 606,000 in 1998/1999, to 489,000 in 1999/2000.
Table 1
AUDIENCES TO CBC TELEVISION
SUPPER HOUR NEWS PROGRAMS
SPRING 2000
| CBC TELEVISION O&O STATION | Full Coverage 2+ Average Quarter Hour Audience (000) | Extended Market 18+ Share (%) |
| St. John's / Corner Brook | 149 |
64 |
| Charlottetown | 41 |
76 |
| Halifax | 56 |
18 |
| Sydney / Glace Bay | 12 |
25 |
| Saint John / Moncton | 31 |
13 |
| Montreal (Anglophones) | 25 |
5 |
| Ottawa / Hull | 39 |
10 |
| Toronto | 36 |
2 |
| London | 10 |
1 |
| Windsor | 25 |
31 |
| Winnipeg | 57 |
16 |
| Regina / Moose Jaw | 10 |
7 |
| Saskatoon | 7 |
3 |
| Calgary | 12 |
3 |
| Edmonton | 10 |
2 |
| Vancouver | 44 |
5 |
| TOTAL | 548 |
N/A |
Source: CBC Research (BBM), except Vancouver from Nielsen people meters.
All programs seen at 6-7 pm, except St. John's / Corner Brook 6:30-7:30 pm and Windsor 5:30-6 pm.
- Opening Remarks by Robert Rabinovitch to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage
- The Financial Review - February 2000 (PDF)
- CBC Television Transformation (PPT)
- CBC Fact Sheet
- Audiences to CBC Television Supper Hour News Programs
- Expanded News Presence (MAP)
