Newsmax’s live coverage of former President Donald Trump’s Phoenix rally Saturday was a solid ratings smash — beating every other major cable news network in America.
New Nielsen data shows that Newsmax was No. 1 in key coverage ratings, winning in all demos and easily walloping Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Fox Business Network and CNBC in the 7-9pm ET time slot.
According to media analytics giant Nielsen, Newsmax drew a total household coverage rating of 1.31, with Fox News taking a lackluster second place with just 1.02.
In terms of total viewers, Newsmax drew a coverage rating of .71, compared to Fox’s .49.
Meanwhile, CNN limped in with a pathetic 0.49 in households and .22 in total viewership.
The Nielsen coverage rating looks at households and viewers watching in proportion to a cable network’s household reach.
Put another way, during Trump’s rally speech Newsmax had 45% more viewers than Fox News in households that get both networks on their home cable system.
In the key demo of 35-64, Newsmax had cable impressions per minute of 259,000 viewers, compared to Fox's 257,000. [Newsmax is carried in about 25 million less cable homes than Fox and still beat the network in impressions.]
In the same demo Newsmax far outstripped CNN with just 178,000 per minute impressions, and MSNBC' with 123,000.
But the Nielsen data tells only half the story. Newsmax estimates that an additional million-plus viewers tuned in to watch Trump’s rally through OTT streaming devices and its smartphone app.
Unlike Fox, Newsmax is free on most major OTT platforms.
Interestingly, Nielsen’s figures for the Phoenix rally’s pre-show coverage from 5-7 pm ET, show Fox with a slight lead over Newsmax — 0.83 vs. 0.65. That indicates that once the actual rally began, audiences abandoned Fox and flocked to Newsmax.
Newsmax is now the fourth-highest-rated cable news channel in the United States and Nielsen reports that more than 30 million Americans watch the network.
Note: See Newsmax TV now carried in more than 100 million U.S. homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Frontier Ch. 115, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, Mediacom Ch. 277, AT&T TV Ch 349, FUBO and major OTT platforms like Roku, YouTube, Xumo, Pluto and most smart TV’s including Samsung+, Sony, LG, Vizio and more – Find All Systems that Carry Newsmax – Click Here
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