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August 11, 2003
CABLEWORLD STAFF
SHOWTIME R US
New Showtime subscribers will receive a $50 Toys ?R? Us gift card from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, a repeat of last year's successful fourth-quarter subscriber acquisition campaign. Showtime Networks Inc. SVP of marketing Geof Rochester is sweetening the offer with a national incentive sweepstakes to help boost sales during the '03 holiday period, including prizes such as $5,000 Visa gift cards and Vespa scooters. ?This is an accelerator to the operator offer,? says Rochester of the consumer overlay campaign, pointing to last time's 22% lift in business for affiliates. ?It also worked so well for Toys ?R? Us, they asked us to repeat the offer.? Sounds like a win-win for all.
SUMMER RATINGS SWELL
Ad-supported cable networks set a record 56.6 ratings points in prime time for week No. 45 (July 28 to Aug. 3), beating the previous record 55.6 set in week No. 42 (July 7 to 13). Cable's average prime-time household (HH) share also topped broadcast's collective share by 21 points ? its widest margin ever.
LIFETIME'S TOP NIGHT
Lifetime's new Saturday night dramas are a hit. The Aug. 2 debut of 1-800-MISSING was the most-watched premiere in its 19-year history, with a 3.1 HH rating and 3.3 million total viewers, while Wild Card ranked third all-time with a 2.7 HH rating and 2.8 million viewers. 1-800-MISSING also drove 900,000 online visitors to the website of the Nation's Missing Children Organization and Center for Missing Adults.
MORE CABLE HITS
Spike TV averaged 2.3 million viewers for the Aug. 4 second season debut of SlamBall, drawing a 2.4 rating for men 18 to 34. Cartoon Network nabbed its first-ever No. 3 ranking in total day delivery for adults 18 to 49 thanks to its Adult Swim block, while Teen Titans has been on a double-digit ratings and delivery streak since it premiered on July 19. Court TV scored its most-watched summer week the first week of August with a 1.9 rated prime-time week, putting it in tenth place among all ad-supported cable nets.
HALLMARK ALSO DELIVERS
July was the ninth straight month of year-to-year growth for Hallmark Channel, which is nearing a top ten ranking among ad-supported cable networks. Last month it tied for No. 12 in total day (.5 HH) and No. 16 in prime time (.8HH), and is No. 1 in overall year-to-year total day growth in household impressions and No. 2 in year-to-year prime-time growth. Original movie Hard Ground also delivered a 1.7 rating on July 12.
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