Listeners & viewers


Pubcasting audiences: not such small potatoes

Based on a chart published in Current, Dec. 16, 1996
By Steve Behrens

By design, public radio and TV have smaller audiences than their commercial counterparts. The audience for an evening PBS program during the average quarter-hour a fifth of NBC's, for instance. One of the purposes of public broadcasting is to air programs that won't get a mass audience but are important to the people who do tune in.

But in the overall picture of American media, public broadcasting's audiences are quite sizeable. Its weekly audiences compare with those of major national magazines, cable TV networks, arthouse film hits, the hottest records and the biggest bestselling books.

This is especially true when you look at cumulative audiences ("cumes") that mount up over the course of a week: the sum of all the various smaller audiences served.

Here's a comparison of audience sizes from a sampling of well-known media products.

Millions   Medium  Product                                 Data details    69.6       TV      NBC primetime weekly cume               Nielsen, spring 1996  
60         MOVIE   Independence Day                        after 23 weeks*  
28.3       TV      PBS primetime weekly cume               Nielsen, spring 1996  
19.8       MOVIE   Hunchback of Notre Dame                 after 24 weeks*  
19.7       RADIO   Public radio total weekly cume          Arbitron, spring 1996  
15.4       TV      Discovery Channel prime. wkly. cume     Nielsen, spring 1996  
15.1       MAG     Reader's Digest circulation    			Audit Bureau of Circulation, first half, 1996  
13.9       TV      HBO primetime weekly cume               Nielsen, spring 1996  
13         TV      A&E Network primetime weekly cume       Nielsen, spring 1996  
11.2       TV      Barney & Friends cume                   Nielsen, week of June 17  
11         REC     Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette   Soundscan, after 76 weeks  
9.7        TV      Nova: "Warriors of Amazon" cume         Nielsen, week of April 9  
9.2        MAG     National Geographic circulation         Audit Bureau of Circulation, first half, 1996  
7.7        TV      NewsHour with Jim Lehrer cume           Nielsen, week of June 17  
7.6        RADIO   Morning Edition weekly cume             Arbitron, spring 1996  
5.7        TV      This Old House weekly cume              Nielsen, week of June 17  
5          REC     Falling Into You, Celine Dion           Soundscan, Billboard, after 36 weeks  
4.9        MOVIE   That Thing You Do, Tom Hanks            after 9 weeks*  
4.3        RADIO   ABC Prime radio net weekly cume         Arbitron, spring 1995  
4.3        REC     East 1999 Eternal, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Soundscan, after 70 weeks  4.1        MAG     Time magazine circulation               Audit Bureau of Circulation, first half, 1996  
4          TV      Disney Channel primetime weekly cume    Nielsen, spring 1996  
3.4        VIDEO   Beauty and the Beast cassette sales     Soundscan, after 4 years  
3          MOVIE   Trainspotting ticket sales              after 20 weeks*  
2.3        BOOK    The Rainmaker, John Grisham             1995 top seller, fiction, Publishers Weekly  
2.3        RADIO   Car Talk weekly cume                    Arbitron, spring 1996  
2.2        TV      Wall Street Week weekly cume            Nielsen, week of June 17  
2.2        TV      Great Performances cume                 Nielsen, week of April l3                          "La Cenerentola"   
2.1        BOOK    Men Are from Mars...                    1995 top seller, nonfiction, Publishers Weekly  
0.2        STAGE   Broadway, total weekly attendance Variety, week of Nov. 25

*Movie ticket sales estimated from Variety grosses at $5 per ticket. Average ticket price in 1995: $4.35.

Web page created April 5, 1997
Copyright 1997 by Current Publishing Committee

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