MSNBC had the 20th Highest Number of Prime Time Viewers out of Any Cable Network- Why Isn't It in AT

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HanoverPretzel

HanoverPretzel

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Oct 6, 2006
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Year-End Cable Ratings: USA Still On Top, History Breaks Into Top 10 With Big Gains – Deadline.com

So why isn't the network with the 20th highest number of prime time viewers in the America's Top 120 package? If you're just going purely based on viewership, it seems to me there are 100 channels it would merit inclusion over.

Does the channel demand big money at contract negotiation time? Is there some other explanation?

Just to pre-empt a few likely responses: Yes, I know some of you would rather walk over hot coals than watch MSNBC (I personally feel that way about FOX News). That's not what this thread is about. :)
 
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Actually, according to that almost year old link you provided, msnbc was 29th, or second to last on the list. This year, it was probably 30th.
 
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chrisn said:
Actually, according to that almost year old link you provided, msnbc was 29th
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I stand corrected. I got confused because the list was unnumbered and listed under the a header that said "Top 20". So I figured last in the top 20 would be 20th. But actually counting them, they are 29th. Still, my basic point remains -- it's odd that the 29th most-viewed channel in the country isn't in a package called "America's Top 120". Granted, I know it isn't literally a package of America's Top 120 channels, but you'd think a package with that name would at least include the top 40 or 50 before getting into obscure channels, filler, and 24-hour infomercial channels.

I even saw something recently that said that MSNBC was starting to get better ratings than CNN, and that's without good Dish package placement.
 
chrisn said:
And it is in the $14.99 Welcome Pack.
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Which is great, but still doesn't quite address why it's not in the $45-$50 (after the first year) AT120/plus packages. Wouldn't one think that that those packages would include every channel of the significance that's in the welcome pack?
 
29th most watched means people want it? Did you look at the actual numbers of any ratings? At many points in the day hardly anyone is watching. Top 25 is the usual level used because much lower is not meaningful. I notice the only news network is Fox that is virtually ever in the top 25 in the ratings I see.
I will give you this though, at some times during the day/night MSNBC does beat CNN, but the problem is both have such low numbers.

Here are some News Network only numbers for Sep 1st. It is somewhat deceiving when a news network has a special broadcast that boosts that day, I don't think anyone had that this day. Looking at overall results this is very representative over the last couple of months. In fact the numbers are quite constant over a long period, it's only that MSNBC does now beat CNN at times, but again that's not saying too much, but between news channels it does have some merit in my opinion.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/09/02/cable-news-ratings-for-thursday-september-1-2011/102339/
 
Channel placement in any package has virtually nothing to do with daily ratings.
It's all about what's in the contract and how much Dish has to pay for the channel. They can put it in whatever packages the contract allows.
Ratings only play a part when the contract is due for renewal.
Unfortunately, most TV programming is now filler and some of the infomercial channels pay Dish to get broadcast.
 
HanoverPretzel said:
Which is great, but still doesn't quite address why it's not in the $45-$50 (after the first year) AT120/plus packages. Wouldn't one think that that those packages would include every channel of the significance that's in the welcome pack?
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that has nothing to do with it. The welcome pack is to keep customers so giving them a news channel probably keeps them happy
Also channels in welcome pack and family pack they have some from AT200 and even AT250. As example in the Welcome Pack channels from AT200 are MSNBC, AMC, and Hallmark. AT250 channels are Bloomberg, The Hub & Boomerang
 
Another problem with msnbc, and I know because I had the welcome pack over the summer, is that it's really not a news channel. It has the opinion guys like everybody else but over the weekend they don't run much news at all. It's a lot of crime and prison documentaries and other filler. Bloomberg was better for actual news.
 
chrisn said:
Another problem with msnbc, and I know because I had the welcome pack over the summer, is that it's really not a news channel. It has the opinion guys like everybody else but over the weekend they don't run much news at all. It's a lot of crime and prison documentaries and other filler. Bloomberg was better for actual news.
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The weekend programming is really a problem for them, I agree. I love the channel, but it's hard for me to justify (on a low income) paying an extra $10 a month mostly for it when they only really have news programming 5 days a week. I've even heard their own anchors make fun of their weekend programming on-air. I didn't need the anchors to call my attention to it, though, I'd been complaining about for years.

I get that prison documentaries must spike ratings, but I prefer seeing news 24/7 on a news channel. And, honestly, I find those type of documentaries disturbing. I don't really get the appeal -- do folks entertained by watching documentaries about people stuck in miserable conditions against their will? I mean, even the people who actually did something truly dispicable and really deserve to be in prison, I don't like actually watching suffer (They may need to be there, but why would I want to watch it?). It's just disturbing. Sort of like the Roman gladiators and people being fed to the lions. Crime and punishment doesn't need to be a public spectacle. I mean, it's one thing to do a news stories about something notable happening in a prison or to do investigative journalism about it or whatever- and another thing just to air it as a spectacle.

Anyhow, it really creates a branding issue for MSNBC to do that stuff as a weekend programming, because what a news channel wants to be is what someone turns on whenever there is breaking news or whenever they want to hear what's going on (or opinions about it). The fact that two days a week MSNBC doesn't do, means that people get used to flipping to CNN or whatever instead a lot of times.

It should still be in AT120, though. ;)
 
It really just comes down to only so many networks will be in a given package. There will be popular channels left out of the bottom tier to make upper tiers more popular.
 
Well in Latino packages all we can get is Puce Morgan & Nancy Gag. We can't even order Faux or MicroSoftNBC news stations. As you can tell not a big fan of either of those personalities. In both cases their egos are so big that it's hard to tell that there is a news channel on the set.
 

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