TV Draws More Preteens

More preteen children are watching television this fall than last, according to new data from TV-ratings firm Nielsen, raising questions about Viacom's contention that a glitch has caused the sharp drop in its Nickelodeon channel's audience.

So far this TV season through Nov. 20, an average of 5.8 million children between the ages of two and 11 have been watching television at any given minute, including broadcast and cable and live and recorded TV, Nielsen says. That is 1.7% higher than a year earlier. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon has been seeing steep declines in viewership among that same age group, which it has long dominated but where it now faces more competition. Hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue for parent Viacom hinge on the audience and on whether long-running shows like "SpongeBob SquarePants" can still hold onto their audiences, and whether new series like "Kung Fu Panda" can build new ones. Nielsen's data paint a broad picture of how kids' overall TV-watching may be shifting amid a whirlwind of technological changes and a new competitive landscape. While Nielsen's numbers show more children viewing TV in total than a year ago, slightly fewer are watching during the day and more are watching shows on nonkids networks, Nielsen says. The Nielsen data also reflect a bigger Hispanic audience, with 4.6% more Hispanic TV households this fall than last. At Nickelodeon, Nielsen's data show an accelerating decline. An average of 969,000 kids between the ages of two and 11, a group of particular interest to many advertisers, watched the channel in September, down 11% from a year earlier. In October, the decline was 17%, and in the first three weeks of November it steepened to 19% from a year earlier.