Fun With Numbers: An Example Of True Market Competition

(For all my friends that love numbers, and oftentimes cite them as the primary basis for their arguments.)


The Presidential address viewers for cable news are as follows:

FOXNEWS 4,400,000
CNN 2,361,000
MSNBC– 1,211,000

The cable news shows for 1-9-07 are as follows:

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 2,498,000
FNC HANNITY/COLMES 2,189,000
FNC GRETA 1,473,000
FNC BRIT HUME 1,319,000
FNC SHEP 1,315,000
CNN DOBBS 1,106,000
CNN BLITZER 825,000
CNN COOPER 658,000
CNN ZAHN 611,000,
MSNBC OLBERMANN 605,000
KING 544,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 502,000
CNNHN GRACE 496,000

If we break this down we can see the following:

FNC had 828,000 more viewers watching the address than both CNN and MSNBC combined, for approximately 55% of the viewers.

FNC also had 3,943,000 more viewers on Tuesday, than both MSNBC and CNN combined. That is approximately 64% of the viewers. That means that the remaining 34% 36% are split between the other two.

The other thing to note is the Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann feud. In my opinion, Olbermann is nothing more than a sportscaster trying to be a news journalist. So in his calculating mind, he can honestly believe that a war with Bill would land him more viewers. But, we can plainly see that O'Reilly beats Olbermann by 1,893,000 viewers, which is an 81-19% margin.

For those of you that like CNN and/or MSNC better, that's fine. But you are going to have a hard time convincing me that all of FNC's viewers are idiots. Say what you want about FOX News Channel, but in a free market economy, they beat the competition soundly.

Hat Tip To Drudge for the numbers (Here and Here)