When looking to reach upscale TV viewers, what’s more important: quality or quantity? A study by the Magna Global USA ad agency asks, but doesn’t necessarily answer, the question.
According to the study, the major broadcast networks tend to skew high among women ages 18-49 making more than $100,000 but much lower among upscale men in the same age bracket. The data are a bit more egalitarian among adults 25-54, but even in that bracket the women viewers are much more likely than the men to be bringing home a six-figure income. In other words, marketers looking to find the most upscale audiences on television among younger adults might be wise to aim their buys at shows with a high quotient of women viewers.
Among the Big Four networks, only CBS has an audience skew below the national average among the upscale homes for all adults 18-49, although it too tops the benchmark among the 25-54 crowd. Magna Global’s figures do not mean that CBS necessarily has fewer upscale viewers than the other networks, only that those in its audience tend to make less than $100,000 compared with those viewing its rivals. NBC, despite its drop to fourth place overall in the ratings, still has a higher concentration of upscale viewers, with an index of 118 among adults 18-49.
Among the cable networks, only eight have an audience that skews richer than the national average: Golf Channel, Bravo, CNBC, E!, ESPN, TLC, HGTV, and MSNBC. That means even a network with relatively few viewers, such as CNBC, can have a greater concentration of affluent viewers than a more popular network such as TNT.
But the head of research at one cable company took exception to the ranking, terming it a Madison Avenue “negotiating tactic” to be used as leverage to keep ad prices down. The executive, who asked that his name not be used, added that it was irrelevant which networks had a greater concentration of upscale viewers if they had so few of them.
But in his report, Steve Sternberg, Magna Global executive vice president of audience analysis, defended using an index independent of the actual total number of upscale viewers. “Shows with higher-percent composition among a demo have a greater likelihood that someone in that demo actually selected the program, is perhaps more attentive, and more likely to be there during commercials. Still other series rank highly among both measures, which makes them the best of the bunch,” he wrote.
