NBC’s decision to carry the Giants- Cowboys football game rather than Democratic National Convention coverage Wednesday night paid dividends in terms of ratings.
(KUSA-Channel 9 tried to get a feed of the DNC for KTVD-Channel 20 but couldn’t get the rights. That would have been a perfect use of its sister station, but MSNBC has exclusive cable/satellite rights to the convention, and NBC didn’t join the pool because of its NFL football.)
For the 8-9:30 p.m. block, which coincided with the night’s climactic speech by former President Bill Clinton, NBC’s football telecast on KUSA scored an 11.6 rating, 26.9 share among voting age viewers (18-plus). That translates to some 339,000 people in this market watching the game on Channel 9, a ratings victory.
Overall, however, 2,000 more voting-age viewers in this market tuned in the convention than the game. The competition showing DNC coverage — locally KRMA, KCNC, KMGH, MSNBC, Fox News and CNN — scored 341,000 people combined.
PBS’s extended coverage did very well here. The breakdown: 72,000 Denver-area viewers watched PBS coverage on KRMA, 41,000 watched CBS News coverage on KCNC, 46,000 watched ABC News coverage on KMGH, 68,000 watched MSNBC, 60,000 watched Fox News Channel and 54,000 watched CNN.
