International Entertainment News: Nickelodeon Makes TV Ratings History

Nickelodeon Makes TV Ratings History

Second Quarter '08 Marks 14 Years in Total Day's Top Spot

Nick's 2Q Performance Lodges Number-One Series Across All Kid and Tween Demos, Vaults Three Specials to the Top with Total Viewers

Nick Locks Down Live-Action Top Spots with iCarly and Zoey 101

Animated The Mighty B! Rises, Joins SpongeBob SquarePants and Back at the Barnyard at the Top with K2-11

NEW YORK, July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickelodeon marks a major milestone in second quarter 2008 by reaching 14 straight years (53 consecutive quarters) as basic cable's top total day network for kids and total viewers, the longest run of its kind. With a second quarter (3/31-6/29/08) of event television and the fast rise of two brand-new hits -- iCarly and The Mighty B! starring Amy Poehler, Nickelodeon owns cable's top five K2-11 series; the top five K6-11 series; four of the top five tween series; commercial TV's top four preschool series; and even placed three specials at number one with total viewers for their respective weeks among all basic cable entertainment programs (iCarly Saves TV, Chasing Zoey, and SpongeBob SquarePants Pest of the West).

For the quarter, Nickelodeon owns a dominant 46% of all K2-11 share of viewing among the three major kids' nets in total day. Also, across the entire Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group portfolio, the Group's television properties (Nickelodeon, Noggin, The N, Nicktoons Network, Nick at Nite) reached an average of 24.2 million K2-11 each week in second quarter, more than any other kids' brand.

Second quarter highlights include: -- Nickelodeon is the only kids' network this quarter to grow its audience with tweens and total viewers (P2+) over last year, as well as growing its leading role against other kid nets with K2-11, K6-11 and K2-5. -- Nick is number one with K2-11, earning a 3.5/1.2 million -- a +46% lead over the next closest kids' competitor (The Disney Channel, 2.4/824,000 K2-11, down -11% from last year) and +119% ahead of Cartoon Network (1.6/559,000 K2-11, down -11%). -- Nick is number one with K6-11, averaging a 3.1/649,000 K6-11, +24% ahead of the number-two kids' net (The Disney Channel: 2.5/528,000, down -7%); and +82% ahead of Cartoon Network (1.7/351,000, down -15%). -- Nick is number one with tweens, growing its tween delivery by +5% (2.3/498,000) this quarter, ahead of The Disney Channel by +16% (2.0/431,000, down -8%) and Cartoon Network by +98% (1.2/252,000, down -19%). -- Nick is first with total viewers, tallying 2.2 million P2+ this quarter, up +7% from last year and +43% ahead of the number-two total day network, sister-channel Nick at Nite (1.5 million, up +22%) [Nick at Nite has finished the quarter as basic cable's number-one network for Adults 18-49, up +50% in total day, making this the network's best showing in more than two years and tied for first place this quarter with TNT]. -- Nick is the number-one destination for preschoolers on commercial TV. Nick averaged 4.1/541,000 K2-5 this quarter in total day, +78% ahead of The Disney Channel (2.3/296,000, down -8%) and +156% ahead of Cartoon Network (1.6/209,000, up +7%). -- Zoey 101 and iCarly are the top two live-action series for tweens on basic cable. For the quarter, among tweens number-one Zoey 101 averaged a 4.5/958,000, up +13%. Number-two-ranked iCarly has earned a 4.8/1.1 million, up +17%. -- The Mighty B! joins cable's top three K2-11 shows just two months after its launch. Following top-ranked SpongeBob SquarePants and Back at the Barnyard, The Mighty B! averaged a 5.5/1.9 million this quarter. Launched April 26, the animated comedy stars Amy Poehler as the voice of Bessie Higgenbottom, the world's most ambitious and lovably unhinged 9-and-3/4-year-old Honeybee troop member. -- Nickelodeon placed three entertainment specials at the top of basic cable with total viewers, kids and tweens in second quarter -- Chasing Zoey, iCarly Saves TV and SpongeBob SquarePants Pest of the West. For the year to date, Nick has placed 3 of the top 5 specials, including first quarter 2008's number-one basic cable program (8.8 million total viewers, 15.4 kids 2-11, 14.9 tweens), The Fairly OddParents' President's Day special, Fairly Oddbaby (2/18/08). -- iCarly brought in record ratings with the iCarly Saves TV special (6/13). The special averaged 4.5 million total viewers (number-one entertainment program for the week of 6/9/08) and ranked as number-one that week across every kid demo. -- Zoey 101's Chasing Zoey special (aired 5/2) was the number-one program on basic cable with total viewers (5.4 million) and all kids and tweens for the week of 4/28/08. -- SpongeBob SquarePants Pest of the West (aired 4/11) special shot to the top of basic cable among total viewers and ranked number-one on broadcast and cable television with kids and tweens for week 4/7/08, where 6.1 million viewers tuned in. SpongeBob SquarePants has been the number-one animated program with kids 2-11 for more than six consecutive years.

Nickelodeon, now in its 29th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 96 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 14 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B) .

All numbers above are based on Nielsen Media Research and Nickelodeon's total programming day unless otherwise noted.

Nickelodeon: M-Th: 6 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fr-Sat: 6:00 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun: 6 a.m.-9 p.m. (ET/PT)

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Nickelodeon

CONTACT: Joanna Roses, +1-212-846-7326, or David Bittler,
+1-212-846-5263, both for Nickelodeon

Web site: http://www.nick.com/

Profile: International Entertainment