Comcast-Owned NBC Wins Ratings for First Time in 10 Years

Network had been mired in last place.

It seems that Comcast is finally getting NBC, long a last-place network, turned around. The company announced today that NBC won the 2013-14 full season among 18-49-year-olds — the network’s first victory in a decade.

From the press release:

NBC has clinched first place for the full 52-week primetime ratings season in the key demographic of adults 18-49, marking the network’s first full-season win in the 10 years since the 2003-04 season.

In “most current” averages from Nielsen Media Research through Sept. 14, with one week left to count in the 52-week season, NBC is running +14 percent ahead of its year-ago rating in adults 18-49 (to a 2.4 from a 2.1) and is currently the only Big 4 network generating a year-to-year improvement in the key demo.

In total viewers, NBC is currently up +25 percent, which tops every increase by a Big 4 network in a full 52-week season for the last 25 years.

Even taking NBC’s 18 nights of Winter Olympic coverage out of the network’s averages, NBC still ranks No. 1 for the season in adults 18-49, ahead of Super Bowl-boosted Fox (with a 2.2 rating for NBC excluding Olympic nights vs. a 2.1 for No. 2 Fox).

In total viewers — that is, all age groups — NBC ranked second. But it’s a vast improvement over the last few years, in which the network sometimes even fell behind Univision in the ratings.