Friends of independent, well-researched journalism sigh, Donald Trump grins maliciously and complacently: for the third time in a row, Fox News is the king of US cable television.
Criticism of Fox News can fill entire encyclopedias. The station feels a strong obligation to the Republican, it is engaged in sensational journalism, in front of which even Germany’s Schundblatt would sometimes be ashamed with the four letters, and Fox News does not take factual fidelity too seriously either. And yet the channel is extremely successful: as the market research company Nielsen reports, Fox News is the most successful US cable channel of the year – for the third time in a row. The cable channel with the second highest number of viewers in the USA is the sports channel ESPN, which belongs to the Disney group, during prime time.
Fox News has an average of 2.48 million interested parties in US prime time, while ESPN has almost 1.83 million. Although ESPN is the second most successful US cable broadcaster at prime time, it is one of the group’s biggest worried children due to the high expectations of Disney shareholders and its declining reach over the years, which is why CEO Robert Iger is working hard to position the group in the lucrative streaming market.
In the primetime ranking, MSNBC ranks third with around 1.8 million television channels, followed by the special-interest channel Home and Garden TV (1.33 million) and USA Network (almost 1.3 million). With 0.99 million inquisitive viewers, CNN just missed the leap into the top ten. FX and AMC, which enjoy great international respect with their premium series, are ranked 16th and 17th with around 749,000 and 745,000 people respectively. Nickelodeon meanwhile takes third place in the all-day ranking, Home and Garden TV takes fourth place, ESPN rounds off the top five. CNN comes seventh in the all-day ranking.