How Univision is Making NBC Look Bad – What The Latest Ratings Tell Us

While I was growing up, when talking about television, we always talked about the Big Three broadcast networks: NBC, CBS, and ABC.  Sure there were the PBS stations out there, but they were small and non-commercial.  So no one really talked about them.

In 1986, Fox Broadcasting went on the air, and for many years was seen as a second-rate network that did a good job of attracting younger viewers, but not a particularly big audience.

All that changed in 1993, when Fox got the rights to carry NFL Football.  With the addition of that “must see” show, Fox moved from always finishing in fourth place overall to finishing third some weeks, and by 2005, it won it’s first ever “sweeps” rating period, earning the right to claim that it was Number 1.

And that’s how things have stood for the last eight years or so.  I, along with many others, have been suggesting for some time that we consider the popular Spanish-language network Univision to be a part of the Top 5 broadcast networks because on any given evening, it can easily finish in the top 3 or 4 overall.  And in urban markets, the Univision affiliate can oftentimes finish in first place.

But this year in February, Univsion got that critical fourth place in the Nielsen February sweeps period among the prized audience of Adults 18-49.  Part of this success is because of Univision’s growing popularity, but some is also from NBC falling off the ratings cliff since he football season has ended. Now Univision is a long ways from having an established spot in the Top 4 because NBC can’t be counted on to be always self destructing, but it does have a growing audience.

As a side note, here are 35 shows that apparently no one is watching – or at least these shows don’t reach a “reporting threshold” with Nielsen.