Cable Is Up, Big 3 Down in New Season : Television: National ratings for last week indicated again that the networks are having major trouble selling their new series to viewers.

One month into the new TV season, ABC, CBS and NBC continue to lose viewers to basic cable despite broadcasting the major league baseball playoffs, using promotional tie-ins with McDonald’s and K mart and offering shows with racier language.

Top network researchers at ABC and NBC said Tuesday that basic cable channels have increased their combined average rating by about 30% from the same period in 1989, to 8.9 million homes. The increase occured over the course of the year but apparently was not diminished by the new-season network onslaught.

At the same time, the researchers confirmed that the Big Three networks thus far this season have drawn a smaller percentage of the national viewing audience than for the opening four weeks of the competition one year ago. The tune-in this season, with the networks pulling out the stops to attract viewers, has averaged about 65% of the audience compared to 71% last year.

The figures were disclosed by Larry Hyams, director of audience analysis for ABC, and Preston Beckman, vice president of audience research for NBC. David Poltrack, senior vice president of research for CBS, indicated that those figures appeared on-target.

Basic cable includes such channels as CNN, ESPN, TNT, USA and Lifetime, which are provided as part of a one-price package by cable companies. It does not include such pay-TV outlets as HBO and Showtime.

The researchers said that PBS’ audience also has increased this season, because of the astonishing success of the documentary series “The Civil War.”

National ratings for last week, released by the A. C. Nielsen Co. Tuesday, indicated again that the Big Three networks are having major trouble selling their new series to viewers.

ABC’s “America’s Funniest People” remained the highest-rated new show, placing 12th. There was no other new series until 29th place, where NBC’s “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” pulled a modestly successful 23% of the audience. But it dropped back to 21% again Monday night.

“Total TV viewership is comparable to a year ago, but the networks are off,” Hyams said. He said that NBC is off by about 13%, ABC by 9%, Fox by 6% and CBS by 2%.

Thus far, said Hyams, the closeness of the three-network race is clear. “On a given week, any of the networks could come in first. It usually comes down to which network has the strongest Sunday movie. It’s usually close until Sunday.”

The importance of network movies overall was indicated again in NBC’s ratings victory for last week. Two outings of the three-part NBC miniseries “Jackie Collins’ Lucky/Chances” ranked among the top 15 shows. The entire miniseries averaged a 17 rating and drew 27% of the audience.

Further proof of NBC’s successful strategy with this female-oriented programming--used to counter CBS’ baseball playoffs and the World Series--came again Monday night when “Danielle Steel’s Kaleidoscope” attracted 32% of the audience as the first half of a two-part movie package by the popular writer.

Top-ranked NBC won the ratings again last week with a 13.7 average and 23% of the audience. ABC, sticking primarily with its regular programming, was a solid second at 13.2 and a 22% audience share. CBS, whose playoff games started slowly but then picked up, was third with a 12.0 and 20% share.

But NBC’s Beckman agreed that the race “is a lot closer than we or anybody anticipated.” He said Fox’s expansion to additional nights was a factor--”The Simpsons” finished almost in a dead heat against NBC’s “The Cosby Show” last week, with both programs ranking in the Top 10.

In addition, Beckman said, “NBC made more changes in terms of introducing and moving series than in the past few seasons. And in doing so, it probably added to the normal confusion of the new season. With a stable lineup, people knew where the lineup was. So it’s taking four weeks to settle in.”

Beckman said that CBS’ less-than-successful luck with the baseball playoffs--the most-watched game, between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, ranked 25th last week--was partly because “CBS is a weaker network.” He noted that the playoffs fared better on NBC and ABC in the past.

CBS’ $1.1 billion purchase of exclusive network rights to baseball for four years, starting in 1990, is being cited as one reason for the network’s 30% drop in income for the third quarter of this year.

One of the reasons for the increasing threat of basic cable to the Big Three is that regular-season baseball games and National Football League contests now are being seen on such channels as ESPN and TNT.

While no single basic cable channel can match the audience pull of a major network, the cumulative impact of the channels is growing as they now reach 58.9% of the nation’s TV households.

Despite CBS’ slip in the ratings with baseball last week, Poltrack expects the network to fare substantially better now that the World Series between Oakland and Cincinnati is getting under way. In addition, he said, “We are encouraged that our regularly scheduled programming has gotten off to a good start.”

“After the World Series is over--when we premiere ‘WIOU’ and ‘Over My Dead Body’--and when we reintroduce ‘The Flash’ this Thursday, I think we’ll see the promotional value of the Series,” Poltrack said. “If we get some success from those shows, then we’re well on our way to a competitive race.”

“WIOU” is a new drama dealing with a local TV news operation. “Over My Dead Body” is a new mystery with Edward Woodward. “The Flash,” a new live-action show based on a comic book hero, made a surprisingly strong showing in several previous outings.