Revenue continues to rise for cable channels Projected annual revenue in USS dollars $5 billion
Driven in part by a highly competitive presidential primary season, cable news saw its viewership jump 8%, to an average of 3.1 million viewers in prime time (according to Pew Research Center analysis of Nielsen Media Research data, used under license). This was especially pronounced at CNN, whose prime-time audience grew 38%. Cable channels gained economically as well, with annual revenue for the three major channels (Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC) projected to rise 10%, to $4 billion.
Podcasting continues to experience audience growth – though this includes both those podcasts focused on news and those looking at other subjects. About one-in-five U.S. adults ages 12 or older (21%) listened to some kind of podcast in the past month, up from 12% six years ago, and 36% have ever listened to a podcast, up from 23% in 2010. Though the audience (and revenue) for podcasts is only a small portion of that for radio, streaming radio has been growing as well, with the share who listened to online radio (whether news or non-news) in the past month more than doubling since 2010, from 27% to 57%. This growth hasn’t necessarily cannibalized the audience for traditional radio, however; 91% of those ages 12 and older listened to terrestrial radio in the past month. When it comes to news radio in particular, NPR’s flagship news programs each have around 12 million listeners. (This is roughly half of the average viewership of the three nightly TV network newscasts, which together attracted about 24 million viewers in 2015.)
Revenue continues to rise for cable channels  | Projected annual revenue in USS dollars  | $5 billion  | 4.0  | Fox News, CNN,  | MSNBC  | 1.8  | 1.2  | 0.6  | CNBC, Fox Business,  | Bloomberg  | 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015  | "State Source: ofthe SNL Kagan. Media  | "State ofthe Kagan. News Media 2016"  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 