CNBC Ratings Down From October of 2007

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that CNBC's numbers are way down from the fall of 2008.

Much has been made in recent days about how far CNBC's ratings have fallen since the end of 2008, but this is an unfair comparison, due to the fact that this period of time represented the climax in the global financial meltdown.

Of course CNBC's numbers were way up during that time - the global economy nearly collapsed, and many people were legitimately concerned that the planet was about to go belly-up.

Ok - so comparing CNBC's current numbers to the fall of 2008 is unfair. But how is CNBC doing compared to the period before the "Great Recession" started?

These are the numbers that should be concerning to CNBC.

According to Zerohedge.com, CNBC's numbers are lower now than they were in October of 2007.

Some people will point out that CNBC's numbers are highly correlated to the performance of the major market indexes. This is undeniable - just look at viewership numbers for the network at the height of the dot-com bubble.

However, the downtrend in numbers seems to be a bit surprising over the past few months, especially given the large bounce for the S&P 500/NASDAQ/DJIA.

Many widely-held tech stocks (including GOOG, AAPL and AMZN) have performed extremely well during this time. I would have thought that CNBC would have seen an uptick in viewers as a result, but this has not taken place.

It will be interesting to see what happens to CNBC's numbers if the markets stagnate over the next couple of years, which is exactly what many people are expecting. Are people finally falling out of love with the likes of Jim Cramer and Maria Bartiromo?

Source: Zerohedge.com - Additional Perspectives on CNBC Viewership