Steve Krakauer of Mediaite takes a look at Fox Business Network, two years after it was launched.
Krakauer writes, “And the A25-54 demo is one that advertisers look at as well, compounding the need to improve the ratings in that category. But FBN Executive Vice President Kevin Magee told Mediaite, ‘I’m not terribly worried about that. The fact of the matter is they are improving, they may not be as quickly as you may think, but we’re doing fine.’
“Still, Magee says the network does sell against the rating category. ‘We do any number of ways, and one of them is the demo, but smarter ad buyers understand that 25-year-olds are great for buying car stereos, but don’t invest a lot,’ he said.
“That may be –- but 50-year-olds do. And one thing Imus’ first day numbers showed is that the wide array of viewers that make up the 25-54 demographic are not being reached very well. With 177,000 total viewers, just 9,000 were in the 25-54 demo. 73,000 are in the 35-64, which means 64,000 come from the 55-64 category. Assuming the under 25 crowd is minimal, that means 95% of the viewers were 55 and older. For the Imus numbers, that percentage is likely to be much higher than the rest of the day, but only because the total viewer is so high –- in fact the key demo number is likely to be lower for most of the other business day programs.
“A business news insider tells Mediaite, ‘There’s no one out there that could have predicted their number would be this low, for this long, unless they watch on a regular basis.’
“Still it’s important to remember a few factors -– the demographic viewer number is very likely to be the last category to see significant growth.”
Read more here.
