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Fox News ratings dominance comes via older, non-minority viewers

N

Nate Wesley

Fox News Channel's ratings success over its cable news competition is well noted, often from its own on-air pundits. However, some statistical breakdowns of that dominance has unearthed some counterintuitive facts given the medium FNC operates in.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, FNC has the oldest audience in all of cable. And compared to the aging audiences of broadcast TV, Fox News Channel might possibly have the oldest average audience in all of American national television.
The Hollywood Reporter: Broadcast audience older than ever

And Fox News' on-air product isn't appreciated much by African-Americans: FNC's primetime audience this season is less than two percent Black:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/26/fox-news-audience-just-13_n_659800.html
 
Putting aside my own dislike of FNC, I'm particularly interested in what FNC might do to shore up its appeal to media buyers. When your audience is pretty old and non-ethnic, that would seem to stunt or limit audience growth over time, given current trends.
 
It would be interesting to see beyond the average age. The older folks might be there in large enough numbers to skew the totals, but the question is the relative size of the rest of the audience. I wouldn't be terribly concerned for some time about the non-ethnic part for now...there are enough advertisers for which that's irrelevant. And the advertisers interested in different characteristics will simply disregard those who lie outside of their target like they do on any other show/network, and determine if there's enough of the target audience to make it worth investing.
 
So? FOX News has more human beings watching than any other cable news channel. Let me get this right. That's a bad thing because this huge audience is older and white.
 
Frank Ferreri said:
So? FOX News has more human beings watching than any other cable news channel. Let me get this right. That's a bad thing because this huge audience is older and white.
Click to expand...

No - not a bad thing to be the most watched. But a cable news network with fewer total viewers, but more viewers in the 25 - 54 age group would be a more desirable demographic for advertisers, and could potentially be more profitable than FNC.

But I don't know that the other 2 cable news networks necessarily attract younger audiences. CNN tried - that's reportedly why they jettisoned Aaron Brown for Anderson Cooper. That doesn't seem to have worked out too well for them. From what I understand, younger people tend to get their news from the internet, and not cable news.

Perhaps MSNBC's liberal commentators attract a younger demo...I don't know.
 
MSNBC probably isn't going to beat Fox in any non-partisan breakdown, but they wouldn't beat them by trying to be to the right, either. Instead, they sall the niche, albeit a smaller one, but a niche nonetheless, and seem to have found the way to tap into it as opposed to drifting without a particular focus.

Of course there's more than just the age demos, as important as it may be. Affluence is an interesting one--I don't know who takes the prize there, but it would be something fascinating to see broken down in great detail.
 
Lkeller said:
Frank Ferreri said:
So? FOX News has more human beings watching than any other cable news channel. Let me get this right. That's a bad thing because this huge audience is older and white.
Click to expand...

No - not a bad thing to be the most watched. But a cable news network with fewer total viewers, but more viewers in the 25 - 54 age group would be a more desirable demographic for advertisers, and could potentially be more profitable than FNC.

But I don't know that the other 2 cable news networks necessarily attract younger audiences. CNN tried - that's reportedly why they jettisoned Aaron Brown for Anderson Cooper. That doesn't seem to have worked out too well for them. From what I understand, younger people tend to get their news from the internet, and not cable news.

Perhaps MSNBC's liberal commentators attract a younger demo...I don't know.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Makes sense that younger people aren't watching ANY TV news just as they are not reading the newspaper. Therefore, the available audience skews older. My problem is with the initial post. Fox may have more viewers BUT they are old and white? In both radio and TV we've caved to ad agency 30 something buyers who have determined that anyone over 54 is worthless. It's pure nonsense. These are the very same buyers who buy CUME (circulation) when buying print ads.
 
Fox News does well by super serving a very specific audience -- an audience that tends to be older, whiter, and more conservative than the typical population. So none of this should be a surprise -- all it shows is that Fox News is doing what it set out to do.

Another interesting ratings statistic that would go with this is how many hours per week the average viewers for the various cable news channels tune into their "favorite" news channel. My bet is that because Fox News doesn't necessarily have more viewers per week than the other channels, but that the viewers it does have watch it for far more hours per week than their competitors. Again, that should be expected -- since Fox News super serves a specific audience niche, it's not suprising that those viewers would keep it tuned in and watch it a lot.

Note that none of the above should be considered an endorsement of Fox News' journalistic standards...just that they've developed a highly effective business model.
 
M.J. said:
I'd like to know the education level of FNC viewers.
Click to expand...


I think it's preschool.

I thought "Fox and Friends" was a cartoon show until I watched by mistake and now I know it is a cartoon show. I do appreciate that they are willing to run children's programs in primetime from 7Pm to 10PM. I doubt older American's want to hear about the fantastic gambits to privatize Medicare and put them at the mercy of private insurance. Must be little kids who watch. That's the ticket. Fox is just a charming kiddie network with nice people in kiddieland like nice Uncle Huck, everybody's wild neighbor Glenn from WOW WOW Becksie, Sarah the Explorer and her moose "Boots', Big Bird dressed as Steve Deucey, Sweet Aunt Laura,", Hannity and Ruby"------Dora the Explorer and her cousin Diego-------oops-------they got cancelled and sent back to Nick Jr.-------wonder why?
 
MsMusicRadio said:
M.J. said:
I'd like to know the education level of FNC viewers.
Click to expand...


I think it's preschool.

I thought "Fox and Friends" was a cartoon show until I watched by mistake and now I know it is a cartoon show. I do appreciate that they are willing to run children's programs in primetime from 7Pm to 10PM. I doubt older American's want to hear about the fantastic gambits to privatize Medicare and put them at the mercy of private insurance. Must be little kids who watch. That's the ticket. Fox is just a charming kiddie network with nice people in kiddieland like nice Uncle Huck, everybody's wild neighbor Glenn from WOW WOW Becksie, Sarah the Explorer and her moose "Boots', Big Bird dressed as Steve Deucey, Sweet Aunt Laura,", Hannity and Ruby"------Dora the Explorer and her cousin Diego-------oops-------they got cancelled and sent back to Nick Jr.-------wonder why?
Click to expand...

Gee Ms MusicRadio, I think they just towed your car! It's the Ford truck with the McCain/Palin sticker on the window, right? :D ;) :D
 
I forgot that Arthur Carlson's daughter is on Fox and Friends. She is really carrying on the family tradition.
 
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