Kantar Media, who monitors the media for global clients, analyzed the data from eight networks showing Barack Obama give the SOTU address and found that 27 percent of those watching tuned out in the first five minutes.
Via TVNewser:
Kantar used second-by-second audience data gleaned from set-top boxes connected to TV sets from 9pm – 10:30pm. It found:
- In the first five minutes, 27% of the audience tuned away.
- The networks that benefited the most from the initial tune-away were TBS, USA, and ESPN
- CBS and FOX showed sharp losses in viewers at the top of the program, while ABC and NBC showed noticeable gains.
- Tune-away was gradual as the speech progressed. No individual topics drove significant audience loss.
- After the speech, Fox News Channel quickly gained viewers, becoming the second-most watched network after NBC. This gain presumably was in anticipation of the Republican response (seen in the second graph after the jump).
As can be seen in the 2nd graph in the embed above, by the end of the hour-and-a-half time frame Kantar analyzed, when Obama had finished and Mitch Daniels was making his 11 minute rebuttal, there were nearly as many on fox and tuning into Fox to see Daniels as those that ended up watching until the end of the SOTU from Obama.
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