Healthcare Vote Coverage Comes up Trumps for CNN and Fox News

Cable news networks in the United States always savour a good political contest, and last weekend's last minute negotiations on the hill and subsequent vote on Obama's healthcare bill were no exception.  All three of the major networks saw an increase in viewership, and Fox Business even covered the events as they unfolded throughout Sunday with Neil Cavuto anchoring a good chunk of its output.

But as has become commonplace in recent times, Fox News came out on top, and not just slightly, but significantly.

The New York Times' Bill Carter writes;

In terms of audiences for the total day of coverage, Fox News had a sizable margin, with 1.86 million viewers to 1.16 million for CNN. The most noticeable number was MSNBC’s, which was less than half of CNN’s and less than a third of Fox’s. MSNBC, which has emphasized political coverage as its strongest suit, averaged 548,000 viewers for the day.

In prime time, where MSNBC now routinely beats CNN in the ratings, the standings shifted Sunday night. Fox as usual was far out front, averaging 2.95 million viewers. But CNN was an easy second with 2.18 million. Again, MSNBC was out of the picture with only 873,000 viewers.

The best news for CNN was how its audience grew as the minutes counted down to the actual vote on the  bill. The network’s audience totals grew in each hour of coverage: 1.95 million at the 9 p.m. hour,  3.16 million at 10 and  3.3 million at 11, when the law was passed and President Obama appeared in the White House to speak about it.

The last hour contained the only change in the competitive standings because CNN finally surpassed Fox News. That network, the home of many opinion hosts who had been outspoken opponents of the bill, saw its audience fall off after the bill passed. It dropped to 2.36 million in the 11 p.m. hour, from 3.34 million viewers in the previous hour.

Read more here.