Independent television stations make up the bulk of the remaining share points.

One share point is 7.6 million visits and $12 billion in sales, because people who visit from other countries tend to stay longer and spend more.

The attitude is, if the networks lose these ratings and share points, we'll just get them somewhere else.

Each share point equals 1 percent of the available audience watching a program at a given time.

Philip Morris said its share rose three-tenths of a share point, to 42.3 percent.

"It drops off only one share point from its hit lead-in, which in this day and age is very good."

A share point represents the percentage of homes using television at the time that are watching the program.

"One share point means $474 million at retail," he noted.

Firewall was seen by 5.6 million (23% share), 600,000 viewers and one share point down on the previous week.

A single "share" point can be worth as much as $10 million in annual revenues to a New York station.