Last week, the first full week of blocked service for more than three million Time Warner customers, the network topped its competitors in total viewers and in all the ratings categories important to advertisers.

One reason perhaps: RadioShack reported Monday a “double-digit” increase in sales of high-definition antennas in the three big cities being blacked out — New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. (The company provided no specific numbers.)

Time Warner Cable has been suggesting that customers try watching CBS the old-fashioned way – on a broadcast signal to an antenna — since it removed the network from its cable systems on Aug. 2 in a dispute over what are known as retransmission fees.

CBS has maintained that it is seeking fair value for its content, but at the same time said the loss of Time Warner viewers would have minimal impact on its ratings – an assertion that was surely meant to reassure its advertisers.

Last week’s ratings would seem to bolster that argument. For the week, CBS averaged 5.51 million viewers, which was up 34 percent over the same week a year ago. Two weeks ago, before the blackout, CBS averaged a similar number, 5.78 million viewers; but August weeks traditionally are lower than July weeks.

CBS also ranked first last week among the broadcast networks with a 1.2 rating in viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 (up 20 percent over 2012) and a 1.6 rating among viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 (up 23 percent.) Those age categories are the two most attractive to television advertisers.

Much of the network’s improvement this summer has been tied to the drama “Under the Dome,” which continues to win its hour every Monday, though this week it declined to its lowest performances so far.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/business/media/blacked-out-in-3-cities-cbs-still-wins-ratings-race.html?partner=rss&emc=rss