Topic: Newsmax
Anthony Rizzo enthused in a June 8 Newsmax article:
Former President Donald Trump's speech to the North Carolina Republican Convention last Saturday drew more than 1.8 million viewers to Newsmax as the network beat Fox News in a key demo rating.
Newsmax reported Trump's 8 p.m. ET speech, his second major address since leaving the White House, drew a total audience reach of 1.1 million viewers across traditional cable platforms, according to Nielsen.
But Newsmax also drew a massive OTT audience as well, with the company reporting its streaming audience exceeded 700,000 total viewers during Trump's speech.
"OTT" stands for "over the top," TV industry parlance for streaming platforms (because they go "over the top" of cable boxes).
But Newsmax's version of the speech's ratings may be more corporate puffery than actual reality. The Associated Press reported:
Former President Donald Trump reached less than a million measurable television viewers over the weekend in his return to the public stage at a North Carolina political event.
Newsmax averaged just under 700,000 viewers between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday when Trump spoke, the Nielsen company said. His speech was also carried live on One America News Network and C-SPAN, but their audience is not measured by Nielsen.
Fox News Channel did not carry the speech by the former president beloved by many of its viewers. The network averaged more than 1.5 million viewers for its typical Saturday night fare of Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro.
Although Trump couldn't eclipse Fox's regular lineup, at least for Newsmax, showing the former president live appeared to be a good business decision for the network. So far this year, Newsmax has averaged 202,000 viewers in prime time, including the more heavily trafficked weeknights, Nielsen said.
Later on Saturday, Fox's debut hour with conservative media personality Dan Bongino reached 1.8 million people, making it the most-watched cable news show of the weekend.
Rizzo seemed to be conceding Fox News' overall ratings victory during the speech, because he selectively reported on an alleged demographic win: "Nielsen reports Newsmax beat Fox in the coverage rating for the key 35-64 demo, taking a .56 to Fox News' .46 during the speech." He did admit that "Newsmax drew a .58 for total P2 audience, close to Fox News' .77 for the same time period," then immediately tried to qualify that victory by complaining that "Fox News is available in 56% more television homes than Newsmax. The coverage rating shows audience penetration against total households available for a network."
