USA Again – Another Yearly Ratings Win as All Eyes Turn to WWE

Nielsen doesn’t close out the year until Dec 29, but it’s a safe bet that USA will finish 2013 with its 8th consecutive win as the #1 cable net in prime for total viewers. Preliminary year-end data has USA averaging 2.7mln total viewers in prime (L+SD), ahead of Disney (2.4mln), ESPN (2.1mln), History (2.1mln) and TNT (2.1mln). USA’s reign is an impressive one, no doubt, but the biggest question mark remains WWE’s “Monday Night Raw.” Here’s why.

More top stories in today’s CableFAX Daily:

 

The FCC is proposing eliminating the sports blackout rules, which prohibit certain MVPDs from retransmitting within a protected local blackout zone the signal of a distant broadcast station carrying a live sporting event if the event is not available on a local TV station.

 

Turns out that the new partner Time Warner Cable’s incoming CEO Rob Marcus TV teased last week was not Apple TV. Read on for details.

Sen Commerce is doing a deep dive on data brokering, with chmn Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) raising serious concerns about consumer protections.