• by Wayne Friedman , November 27, 2013

NBC is on the verge of winning the November TV viewing prime-time period for the second time in two years. But overall, the month still doesn't offer much good news for any English-speaking broadcast network.

By many viewing metrics, networks have lost ground -- and it's just two days from the end of Nielsen’s November reporting period.

NBC is down 7% to a 2.6 rating among 18-49 viewers when looking at Nielsen’s live-plus-same-day viewing metrics. CBS is off 8% to a 2.2 average rating; ABC is down 9% to a 2.0 number; and Fox has lost 23% to a 1.7 rating.

Only CW was able find a decent story -- maintaining the same 0.6 rating level among 18-49 viewers versus the same time frame a year ago.

TV’s November “sweep” period, and the three other sweep reporting months, are still a big deal for smaller market TV stations when it comes to setting local advertising rates. Larger market TV stations -- where Nielsen People Meters are employed that generate daily viewing data -- don’t have this issue.

Still, many networks continue to run and highly promote original programming with many cliffhangers/conclusions in November. Come December/early January, many networks rest their significant programming/marketing efforts.

NBC again garnered the top spot in the key 18-49 viewing metric largely because of its highly rated “Sunday Night Football” and to a lesser extent from its singing competition show “The Voice.”

NBC was the only network to gain in total overall average viewers -- up 5% to 8.35 million. CBS was flat at 10.2 million; ABC down 3% to 7.8 million; Fox off 23% to 4.98 million; and CW down 5% to 1.57 million.

When taking sports out of the picture -- as well as late-afternoon NFL content that runs into Sunday prime time, boosting CBS and Fox --- it’s a different picture, as ABC would attest to.

Here, ABC is on top with a 2.1 number, down 5% from a year ago. CBS is at a 1.9 rating; down 14%; NBC folllowed a 1.7 rating, off 19%; Fox sits at a 1.6 number down 11%. CW remains the only network that is even with a year ago -- at a 0.6 rating.

"Watching TV" photo from Shutterstock.

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