Fox News Beats CNN in Ratings for 1st Time

Fox News Channel marked a milestone in its five-year history, topping rival CNN in viewership during a one-month period for the first time.

Fox, which went on the air Oct. 7, 1996, beat a network that had a virtual monopoly in cable news for 15 years, despite the fact that Fox is available in fewer homes. Cable news viewership in general is up over last year at this time. CNN, Fox and MSNBC have held on to some of the audience that tuned in after the Sept. 11 attacks. During January, Fox averaged 656,000 viewers while CNN had 596,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. MSNBC had 296,000 viewers. In Nielsen’s cable measurements, a month ends on its last Sunday.

In prime time, Fox averaged 1.1 million viewers, CNN was at 921,000 and MSNBC had 358,000. Fox beat CNN during two months last year in prime time, but by smaller margins. And it has never won in Nielsen’s 24-hour average.