CNBC’s ratings down in February

TheStreetInsider.com reports that CNBC‘s ratings fell by 25 percent during the business day in February.

The site reports, “For the CNBC business day, Monday-Friday 5:00AM-7PM, average viewers fell to 221,000 from 294,000 last year, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. In the key 25-54 advertising demo, average viewers are down 37 percent to 53,000.

“In addition, CNBC’s original ‘Money Honey’ Maria Bartiromo saw her total viewers fall 12% in total and 17% in the demo for the 3PM ‘Closing Bell’ segment and 11% total and 30% in the demo during the 4PM ‘Closing Bell’ segment.

“The new ‘Money Honey’ Erin Burnett didn’t do better. For her 2PM “Street Signs” segment, total viewers are down 16% and down 28% in the demo. The decline came despite Burnett covering the events live in Egypt during the month.”

Read more here.

UPDATE: A reader points out that CNBC was airing the Olympics in February 2010, and that skews its numbers from last year to higher than normal.