Lifetime Movie Net Tops Sub Survey

Lifetime
Movie Network topped the list of favorite digital basic networks,
according to the just-released 2010 Digital Cable Subscribership Study
from Beta Research Corp.

Lifetime
Movie Net was picked tops by 27% of respondents, followed by Fox Movie
Channel with 19%, and a veritable host of others tied at 15% (BBC
America, Cooking Channel, Discovery Health, and Hallmark
Movie Channel). In last year's survey, National Geographic topped the
list, but it was not rated in 2010, according to a spokesperson for the
company, who said it will instead be included in a basic cable survey
being released later this year.

In terms of
perceived value, NFL Network topped the charts with subscribers, who
ascribed to it a value of $2.02. Next was Nick Toons TV at $1.92, Disney
XD at $1.78, MTV Jams at $1.73 and Teen Nick
at $1.69.

NFL net also
topped last year's "viewer value" list, though at a slightly higher
$2.06, tied with Gospel Music Channel. This year, GMC was tied for
seventh at $1.64.

In the
category of important to their enjoyment of cable, there was a seven-way
tie at the top, with somewhere between 76% and 83% (there was a plus or
minus 3 point margin of error) naming ESPNU,
Science Channel, Discovery Health, ESPNews, History International, ID,
Investigation Discovery, and NFL Network.

The study
was conducted in July, sampling 2,445 digital cable subs from 32 systems
asked to rate 41 basic networks carried by most of those systems.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.