TVB: cable's best isn't even a top-100 show; broadcast TV group says cable's boast needs to be put in context.(Top of the Week)(a look at the top-rated television programs for the year)(Illustration)

Broadcasting & Cable, January, 2004 by Romano, Allison

Cable may be attracting more eyeballs, but the biggest individual attractions on television are still on broadcast. That s the message from the Television Bureau of Advertising. Cable has been crowing that, for the second year in a row, the 53 ad-supported, Nielsen-rated cable networks drew a larger share of the prime time audience than the seven English-language broadcast nets.

The split was 50.3% for cable to 44.6% for broadcast. But, cautions TVB President Chris Rohrs, those percentages need to be put in context, namely Nielsen's list of the top-rated TV shows in 2003 (see page 13). "For all the talk of cable surpassing broadcast," he says, "it is fascinating that the top cable program is [ranked] 258." That 258th-ranked show was TNT's NBA...

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