Damien Hoffman of Wall St. Cheat Sheet notes that business news network CNBC’s ratings are down from 2008 — before the market crash of 2009 pumped up its ratings.
Hoffman writes, “Last week, I posted the most recent Nielsen Media Research ratings for CNBC. Although 90% of the comments confirmed CNBC programming was not valuable, a few passionate people came quickly to the defense of their favorite financial entertainment network.
“The main criticism was I cherry-picked the data and the comps were against high ratings from the time of the market crash. First, the Nielsen ratings are the ratings. I have no pull at Nielsen to manipulate ratings. They were fresh as the morning dew.
“Second, it’s true ratings are down against a tough comp from the Great Crash. However, if we rewind back to January 2008, well before the proverbial fan was hit with shit, the CNBC rating comp still tells the same story: people have turned on, tuned out, and dropped out.
“I am not interested in wasting my time on Earth debating whether CNBC is being unfairly criticized. The numbers above and the charts below are enough data for me to conclude they are losing viewers (the red dots indicate the dates in the chart above). Anecdotally, anyone who has worked in finance knows CNBC is on mute in every office which runs the channel for the ticker and occasional breaking news graphic.”
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