Your 18-49 Demo Guarantee: When Will You Sing A Different Tune?

A media critique by Wayne Friedman Monday, May 11, 2015 The 18-49 demographic will still drive a lot of advertising business this upfront. But how long can this last?   Age and gender will really matter less in future years -- especially when we can measure consumers’ very different purchasing behaviors. And perhaps other data. For years, executives have pointed to CBS’ older demographic as perhaps a detriment. But in reality, those people still buy stuff, right? All broadcast networks and a number of cable networks increasingly attract  older TV viewers. Veteran TV research executive Steve Sternberg notes CBS’ median age is now 59; ABC and NBC  54; and Fox, 49. (CW is also older, now at 44).  Sternberg says roughly 45% of all ad-supported cable networks measured by Nielsen have median ages of 50 or higher. Getting Millennials to watch your TV shows has been the shiny new object for years -- still giving TV executives headaches. But if those viewers in fact don’t have money -- or, better still, desire -- to buy your products, why bother? As far as this season is concerned, CBS says it’ll win another season in overall TV viewers, while the still desired “younger” 18-49 demographic will see NBC as its champion once again. We all know these faux TV demos increasingly means less and less these days. Which is why you’ll continue to see more TV networks trying to connect the return on media investment dots. But let’s skip forward a bit: When will media buying and TV selling executives come to an agreement to pin more of their upfront  dollars on a new set of selling metrics? Time’s a wasting; and I’ll be buying lots more stuff this weekend at Safeway and Best Buy.