Cable TV Animation || Q2 2008 / Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network:
As the spring months came to a close and the warmer weeks of summer began to stretch out, Cartoon Network's recent struggle to retain key kid audiences has all but faded. Since the channel's onslaught of well-received original animated programming earlier this year, Cartoon Network has been plugging away, ever eager to keep a good thing going. Overall, the network was down in key areas in the months of April and May, and even on the Quarter overall; however, the remarkable comeback in June 2008 leaves many hopeful.
In April, Cartoon Network ranked #5 when juxtaposed with all other cable networks, in terms of Total Viewership. The ratings average was 0.8 (979,000) for the Total Program Day. The network also ranked #6 in the following month, earning another 0.8 ratings share (941,000). Perhaps with the exception of an outstanding performance from
Ben 10: Alien Force (the series premiere), which ranked as one of the top programs with Kids 6-11 for its week of debut, bringing in more than 1.16 million of said demographic, the month of April 2008 showed little worth remembering. (Some of the above ratings and audience numbers are coverage ratings that reflect the network's average, quantifiable, household percentile.)
Cartoon Network's new venture
Ben 10: Alien Force helped propel Saturday mornings for the cable channel, averaging a Kids 6-11 rating of 3.1/14 over the entire Quarter. The animated television series about the teen golden boy whose knack for alien transformation earns him an adventure a day was at its peak, naturally, over the first four episodes, whereupon it averaged a mightily impressive 3.6/16 share.
The Kids 6-11 audience average showed steady and consistent growth throughout the month; however, this tells only part of the story, as the audience was suffering in the early part of the Quarter, in year-to-year comparisons.
In April, Cartoon Network witnessed a Total Program Day downturn of -22% (K6-11); and with Tweens 9-14, a similar loss of -23% as well. Unfortunate though these numbers may be, Cartoon Network found a lot of growth in the Kids 2-11 group across the month of April 2008 (Total Program Day).
May 2008 showed promise for Cartoon Network. The kids entertainment channel ranked #10 among all cable channels for Total Viewership, during Primetime hours, earning a ratings share of 1.0 (1,167,000). Special programming notes for this month include an hour-long block of the action anime
Naruto, whereas the episodes "Too Late for Help" and "The Death of Naruto" found the program ranked as one of the most watched items of the week with Teens 12-17, finding its way to the eyes of an impressive 720,000 of said demographic. (Some of the above ratings and audience numbers are coverage ratings that reflect the network's average, quantifiable, household percentile.)
As previously reported by AnimationInsider.net --[Related A.I. News: "
CN: Q2 2008 Ratings"]; in direct comparison to the previous Quarter's ratings, Cartoon Network's delivery for most key audiences blossomed rather well in response to the new programming. The Kids 2-11 delivery earned both marginal and substantive gains in Total Program Day and Primetime, by +01% (up to 566,000) and +07% (up to 708,000) respectively; this demographic saw ratings gain in Primetime only, up to a 1.8 share.
As such, the Kids 6-11 viewing audience mimicked the previous demography's Quarterly-by-Quarter increase, bringing in an improved +02% (up to 358,000, Total Program Day) and +09% (up to 480,000, Primetime). Meaningful ratings share growth in each time-period was exhibited by +07% (TPD) and +11%, up to a share of 2.0 (Primetime). Additionally, the Tweens 9-14 demographic, whose weight and value has increase considerably in the past year, was the area where Cartoon Network found most of its success [when compared to the previous Quarter]. Audience delivery in the Tw9-14 category for Q2 2008 registered up +05% (TPD) and +10% (Primetime), with ratings share resulting in a growth of +10% and +14% respectively.
Cable TV Animation || Q2 2008 / Cartoon Net. (cont'd) & Adult Swim
Returning to current, monthly analysis, Cartoon Network saw a decline among its Total Program Day audience of Kids aged 6-11 of only -11% during May 2008, in comparison to the previous year, which was an immense improvement over several of the previous months. Much of this can be accredited to the network's implementation of a new Thursday evening comedy programming block -- "Har Har Tharsdays" -- which has by now evolved into a solid and stable return on key demographics.
The following month, June, saw a similar near stoppage to the key audience loss, as the channel erred only -05% (K2-11, Total Program Day), and -11% (K6-11, Total Program Day). The Tweens 9-14 viewership actually saw a small growth in June, during Primetime hours, of almost +01%. Quarterly average for Cartoon Network's Kids 6-11 audience, due to early losses, ended up at -14%, for the Total Program Day.
One final note of interesting was the paper-thin viewer count for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, whom are eerily close in terms of Total Viewers (TPD) this past Quarter, separated by only tens of thousands of viewers. The margin between the two has been close like this for several months; perhaps an intriguing testament to the immense draw of Adult Swim, having the capacity to mirror the total daily audience of its buddy network. Of the weeks where information was available for this article's analysis; Adult Swim ranked higher than Cartoon Network, on the majority, and when Adult Swim fared better, it was by a wider margin than if CN had been ahead. Of additional note is an aberration in the third week of May, where Adult Swim topped Cartoon Network by a substantial margin of Total Viewers.
Adult Swim:
Adult Swim managed to retain its title, as per usual, with its core adult male audience, throughout the Quarter; maintaining its hold as the most visited standard cable channel specifically for Adults 18-34. According to Cartoon Network/Adult Swim ratings analysis, the animation and live-action network remains the place to be for men's wandering eyes late into weekday and oftentimes weekend evenings.
In other areas of analysis, Adult Swim ranked #6 in April 2008, in terms of Total Viewership, among all cable networks through Total Program Day. The ratings share average was 0.9, an audience of 932,000. The following month, Adult Swim fared even better, ranking #5 in all of cable, pulling in an average Total Viewership of slightly over one million. (These ratings and audience numbers are coverage ratings that reflect the network's average, quantifiable, household percentile.)
Adult Swim certainly managed to keep the fight for the Adults 18-49 demographic competitive (with Nickelodeon) specifically for the month of May 2008 (Total Program Day). After typically ranking a spot or two lower in terms of audience delivery earned, Adult Swim actually beat out Nickelodeon in the third week of the month. Having since lost a wide margin of viewers from this particular group of interest over the past Quarter of analysis, it appears the late night channel is resourceful, remaining active in seeking out the viewers that matter.
Adult Swim ranked, in terms of Total Viewership of the Total Programming Day, within the top five of all cable networks for the Second Quarter. The channel came in at #5 with the ratings average of 0.9 (1,039,000). (These ratings and audience numbers are coverage ratings that reflect the network's average, quantifiable, household percentile.)
Kid viewers for the adult television channel continued to drop out, throughout Second Quarter 2008. However irrelevant, the Kids 6-11 audience delivery plummeted -44% (April), -36% (May), and -33% (June), for each month in this past Quarter.
