By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The calendar may not say summer yet, but the fun and games dominant onscreen mean the season has already begun for television networks.
Competition shows or sporting events accounted for 14 of the 20 most-watched programs last week, the Nielsen company said. This is programming most likely to be watched live, giving them the advantage over scripted programming that is often watched on a time-delayed basis.
Three telecasts of “The Voice” on NBC landed in the top 20, along with three prime-time editions of “The Price is Right” on CBS featuring the casts of CBS programs.
The NBA’s Western Conference finals between Golden State and Oklahoma City was clearly the audience’s choice over the Cleveland-Toronto series in the East. Game seven of the Warriors-Thunder series on Memorial Day proved to be the most-watched program in the TNT network’s 28-year history.
NBC won the week in prime time, averaging 5.1 million viewers, and also won among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic advertisers seek. CBS averaged 4.84 million viewers, ABC had 4.75 million, Fox had 3.2 million, Univision had 1.8 million, the CW had 1.5 million, Telemundo had 1.3 million and ION Television had 1.2 million.
TNT was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 3.29 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 2.6 million, Fox News Channel had 1.79 million, USA had 1.5 million and HGTV had 1.34 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.8 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.4 million.
Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for May 23-29. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.
1. “Dancing With the Stars” (Monday), ABC, 12.34 million.
2. NBA Playoffs: Golden State at Oklahoma City, Game Six, TNT, 10.81 million.
3. “The Voice” (Tuesday, 9 p.m.), NBC, 10.59 million.
4. “Dancing With the Stars” (Tuesday), ABC, 10.49 million.
5. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 10.26 million.
6. NBA Playoffs: Oklahoma City at Golden State, Game Five, TNT, 10 million.
7. NBA Playoffs: Golden State at Oklahoma City, Game Four, TNT, 8.63 million.
8. “The Voice” (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), NBC, 7.61 million.
9. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 7.29 million.
10. “Law & Order: SVU,” NBC, 7.19 million.
11. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 6.88 million.
12. “Game of Thrones,” HBO, 6.71 million.
13. “The Price is Right — Amazing Race,” CBS, 6.67 million.
14. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.63 million.
15. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.6 million.
16. “The Price is Right — Big Brother,” CBS, 6.41 million.
17. Auto Racing: NASCAR Sprint Cup Post-Game, Fox, 6.25 million.
18. “The Price is Right — Survivor,” CBS, 6.22 million.
19. NBA Playoffs: Cleveland at Toronto, Game Four, ESPN, 6.14 million.
20. “Blindspot,” NBC, 5.85 million.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More