Far from the downward trend surrounding the evening newscasts, the revenue picture of morning news appears more stable. Other than "Meet the Press" on NBC, indeed, the network's "Today" show is the longest-running program on network television.10 [1]
And today, in an age when success in entertainment programming is becoming more difficult, morning shows, with their 10 hours of programming a week (15 hours for the "Today" show on some affiliates plus four more on weekends), morning shows are more important than ever. This is why networks like ABC are trying to create weekend versions of their morning programs to compete with NBC.
Not only are the morning shows enduring, but they are also growing. In the four years of 1999 through 2002, morning show revenues are up 37 percent, according to the data from TNS.
To get a sense of their significance, consider this: Together, the three morning shows take in more than double the revenues of nightly news, despite half the ratings.11 [2] A key reason is that the morning shows are on four times longer - two hours a day versus 30 minutes - and pack more commercial time or sponsored segments into each half-hour.
In 2002, NBC's "Today," ABC's "Good Morning America," and CBS's "Early Show" brought in over a billion dollars in combined advertising revenues to the networks.
The national economic slowdown had only the smallest of impacts. Only "Good Morning America" had a decline in revenue from 2000 to 2001, and a small one at that ($4.6 million). In 2002 its numbers were up again.12 [3]
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1999 to 2002
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Source: TNS Media Intelligence/CMR unpublished data, www.tnsmi-cmr.com
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Financially, morning is something of a two-network race. According to the data from TNS, NBC's "Today" show and ABC's "Good Morning America" are actually closer in revenues than they are in ratings, and have been since 1999. Through the first eight months of 2003, both programs had taken in about $300 million each.13 [5]
From 1999 to 2002, moreover, both had seen revenues grow by at least 30 percent.
CBS clearly lags behind though it has made significant gains since 1999, when the "Early Show" replaced the struggling "CBS This Morning." Since then, it has had the greatest growth in advertising dollars among the three networks, 56 percent, although it is building on a smaller base.14 [6]
In the reverse of what we see for evening news, the morning shows are able to generate these powerful increases in revenue without increases in ratings.
Again, this has something to do with demographics. The younger viewers these shows bring in, including stay-at-home moms, may allow the networks to command more from advertisers.
Yet this is only part of it. Morning shows have also found ways to generate new revenue by creating advertising opportunities even within the content of the programs, and outside the commercial breaks. Sponsored weather spots, product-oriented gardening tips and other potential revenue opportunities are now commonplace.
How Morning News Shows Use Their Time, 2001
Division of Time, in Minutes
| June 2001 | October 2001 | Average | |
| Total Air Time (minutes) | 120 | 120 | 120 |
| Commercials | 35 | 35 | 35 |
| Local News | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Products | 16 | 17 | 16.5 |
| Promotions | 10 | 5 | 7.5 |
| Subtotal | 70 | 66 | 68 |
| Remaining Time | 50 | 54 | 52 |
Source: "Before and After," PEJ study, November 2001
In addition, a 2001 study conducted by the Project found that, excluding commercials and local news inserts, these morning news programs dedicated 32 percent of their time, or roughly 24 minutes of program, to selling viewers something - a book, a movie, a kitchen or garden gadget, a Web site, other network programs or a segment later in the show, some of which, though not all, were sponsored segments.
Add in the 35 minutes of commercials per program, and more than half of every two-hour show was spent selling viewers something. In short, if viewers tuned in for an hour of morning news, they would get just 25 minutes of network news, weather and other features not related to products and promotions.
The shows also have become vast sources of self-advertising, or synergy, for the corporate owner. In the study, each of the morning shows did more stories about its own parent company products than it did about any other single company, especially its media competitors. Disney products were most likely to appear on ABC, Viacom products on CBS and G.E. products on NBC.15 [7]
The morning time slot is also interesting for another reason. It is the one time of day where the networks go head-to-head with cable news operations with virtually the same kind of programming. From 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern time, both cable and network air similar morning shows.16 [8] And in this time slot the networks prevail. As we saw in nightly news, head to head, many more people watch network morning news programs than comparably styled cable news morning programs.17 [9]
Fox plays an interesting role in the morning show battle as well. On the West Coast, where the NBC, ABC and CBS morning shows are tape delayed, Fox's affiliates offer local live alternatives.