Time Warner Cable Blackout Has Minimal Impact on CBS Ratings

LOS ANGELES: It has officially been a week since CBS stations went dark on Time Warner Cable, though the network is reporting that the impact of the blackout on its national ratings average has been minimal through the seven-day period.

Compared to the seven-day period during the week prior to the blackout, CBS is down just 0.2 percent in viewers. It is unchanged in the core 18-to-49 demo.

In comparison with the same week last summer, CBS’s Friday through Thursday prime-time programs during the blackout are up 38 percent in viewers and up 33 percent in the 18-to-49 and 25-to-54 segments.

The dispute, which is over the price of retransmission fees, has left 3.2 million Time Warner Cable customers without CBS stations in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. Because of the network’s strong ratings growth this summer, the net effect of the blackout "will not present an overall ratings hardship," according to the network. CBS also notes that August is typically one of the lowest months of the year for ratings and ad revenue, "making the financial impact of the blackout negligible."