Monday, February 23, 2009

Annotations

TV starts to notice others in the room; The 18-to-49 age 'demo' may be overrated. Future programming could change greatly

For the last 20 years, the television industry has been all about young-adult demographic groups, or "demos" in the slang of Madison Avenue, because marketers have believed that young people are most likely to develop lifelong loyalties to certain brands. Today networks find it smarter to widen their demo to 18-49 year olds. This article is arguing that the young 20s and 30s demo is not that important for different networks. They talk about the fact that many of the prime time shows are watched by families that consist of a wide range of demographics. CBS is the first network to focus the majority of their shows on this concept. This source will be useful because I can use it as a point of reference and an example of how the different networks functioned in the past compared to how they are now. The networks in the 90s were basically focused on gaining the young 20s and 30s views with “Friends” and “Seinfeld”.


Why won't television grow up?

Many network television executives and advertisers do not like the fact that their audiences are growing older by the day. As a result, programming and advertisements that appeal to a huge audience of mature viewers are often viewed as unimportant, even though Americans aged 45 and older are the largest television viewing audience. One of the reasons that the networks are obsessed with pleasing young adults is that advertisers are still willing to pay a premium to reach this less affluent and shrinking group. The broadcast industry's ignorance about aging may stem from the way it chooses to receive its information. To find out about their markets, television advertisers and agencies must rely on Nielsen ratings, which are the only comprehensive source of information about television audiences. In markets where older adults are a potent and growing force, the standard Nielsen numbers do not describe viewers or their buying habits. Many of the networks are becoming concerned with the fact that their 18-49 demo is not going to be growing in the near future and the 50 and older demographic will increase more than 60 percent in the next 10 years.

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