You can probably estimate the average viewing time per page view pretty accurately.

Mutliply cable viewers by their average time, multiply the page views by that average time. I think it would produce an 'apples to apples' comparison and completely avoid the problem of the 'dedicated reader' skewing the results.

My figures show about a 16% drop
in viewership, increasing.

Exponentially.

As soon as people realize they're going to
save 50.00 a month by dropping cable,
and never miss it at all.. the sky's
the limit.

Of course, I have to pay for a place for a family of five...so...

Television is a 24 hour commercial interrupted by 9 minute programming segments, which themselves are nothing but more advertising.

TV has nothing to offer anyone but a vast wasteland of toxicity, misinformation and pitches for products no one needs.

My television is used solely for video game playing and viewing tapes and DVDs.  The TV tuner has sat idle for years.

Funnily, though I am not up on the very earth shatteringly important Michael Jackson trial, I have managed to stay reasonably informed enough because of blogs, friends and WOM, to know that the United States of America is in her darkest hour.  Will she emerge as the Republic she has been for over 200 years?  Or will she go the way of Weimar?

Heaven help us.  At least the Germans did not have TV operating against them like Americans do now.  Of course, they had radio, but TV is a much more powerful, dominating medium.  

I am pleased to find many of the sheeple seemingly awakening from their long slumbers, if not to total realization, at least, to the vague feeling that "something is wrong."

Here is a guideline for you.  If you are feeling stressed, tense, on edge, fearful or depressed and you either are on Paxil or some other such pharmeceutical poison, or you are thinking about going on it...YOU ARE BEGINNING TO AWAKEN.

Do not panic.  Turn off your television, log on to the internet and surf every blog you can find.  You will quickly learn there are people in the world who have insights you may find useful in guiding you through these dark times.  

One thing is for sure.  TV agitates, foments and perpetuates this creeping paranoia -- it is intended to.  Media, including the entertainment media, have been pimping for the powers that be forevah.  Ever wonder why it was so easy to sell the mythical "Arab terrorist" to us?  He was invented by Hollywood, given a three dimensional existence by the CIA and then "unleashed" on 9/11.

If you are still operating on information brought to you by Proctor and Gamble, you have no clue what is going on.

They have already destroyed NPR, which now is a shell of its former self.  PBS is fast becoming just another propaganda arm.

I predict more and more will begin looking to blogs as it becomes more obscenely obvious every day how the mass television advertising media (by which I include EVERYTHING THAT IS ON TV) has LIED LIED LIED to them.  Many will simply tire of hearing the screamfests;  others will realize they are slowly starving to death in an information wasteland;  still others will actually realize how they have been brainwashed, manipulated and lied to, to the detriment of their own economic, political and spiritual interests.

Pray that these fuckers don't take steps to destroy the world forum -- otherwise known as the internet.  

This information is encouraging.

Here's what my sister sent me:

Here's what we had on hand- DR rates are daytime rotational, meaning spots can run anytime during the designated time period, (ie anytime between 9A-4P).  Let me know if you have questions regarding any of this.

CNN
==
DR      10a-4p $1000

Non-DR  9p-10p $17K
        10-11p $10K
        9a-3p  $3000

Fox News
===
DR      9a-12n $1350

Headline
===
DR      9a-4p  $800

Non-DR  7-11p  $1828
        9a-4p  $1500

MSNBC
===
DR      9a-4p  $1200

Non-DR  9a-4p  $2100
        11p-2a $2500

I'll post this on the dailykos thread as well.

please,please, i beg you: continue to post on this subject.

far too many, in the beltway and beyond, believe that cable news is important, relelvant, meaningful, etc., in the lives of "most" americans. as these numbers show, they are not. it's the echo chamber effect, and when we let slip the blinders, we see that for crying out loud! blogs get more readers than Candy Crowfeet or whatever, and no matter how the numbers are crunched, at least we're all text and discourse, where CNN etc are nothing but image and propaganda. which is more effective, in the long term sense?

i could write more on this but it's late for me. but please, keep this alive. this kind of info is important, for all of us.

How about those who have turn to the BBC just to find out what is going on in the U.S.?

FNC also tends to attract more zealots.

What do others think might be the riches in this new format?  

I too question the comparison of Cable News Viewership with Blogs.  Cable News has its uses when things are "happening" -- under normal conditions I mute the sound, and let the pictures roll and surf blogs with good old Public Radio on low so as to pick out when to turn it up and listen to something interesting.  But reading and actually watching TV with the sound up is distracting.  You can do neither very well at the same time.  But low volume Radio and Blogs work fine together.  

In addition to beating cable news, Murdoch points out that today's youths are not going to newspapers to get their news and instead turn to the web and even blogs.  

In a Guardian Unlimited article http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1459697,00.html he stated that only 9% of youths describe newspapers as trustworthy, just 8% find them useful and only 4% find newspapers entertaining.  

These statistics are staggering and shows just how important the Web is becoming as a news source.