ESPN, ESPN2 Top New Commercial Ratings For Cable Nets

ESPN and ESPN2 last week were the top networks for Nielsen's new cable commercial ratings, with ESPN2's "over-delivering" compared to its program ratings, meaning that "more people were watching the commercials" than the programming, according to Wayne Friedman of MEDIA POST. ESPN2 scored 102% in the new metric among both the 18-49 and 25-54 demos. Among all TV households, ESPN2 was first with 104% and ESPN was second with 97.7%. Hallmark Channel Senior VP/Research Jess Aguirre, who released the Nielsen data, said, "It's because people are tuning in and out of live games" (MEDIAPOST.com, 10/23).