Huge ratings for Fox Business and CNBC due to markets ups and downs

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times writes Thursday that the stock market turmoil of the past week has resulted in huge viewership gains by both Fox Business Network and CNBC.

Flint writes, “Launched almost four years ago, Fox Business has posted huge — in many cases record — percentage increases in ratings over the last week. The gains have been bigger than those experienced by CNBC, which is not surprising given that Fox Business is in only 58 million homes while CNBC is in north of 90 million homes.

“From Thursday through Tuesday, the daytime audience (9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.) for Fox Business grew 256% to 128,000 viewers, from 36,000 viewers for the same period last year. From 4 p.m. to 8 p.m, Fox’s audience was up 162% to 131,000 viewers from 50,000 a year earlier.

“CNBC saw its daytime audience grow 68% to 438,000 viewers from 260,000 over the same period. In late afternoon and early evening, the gain was almost 111% to 340,000 viewers from 161,000.

“Despite the distribution advantage for CNBC, Lou Dobbs’ show on Fox Business has performed exceptionally well.”

Read more here.