Cable Unleashes Data Showing Late Night Is The New 'Prime Time' For Young Men

The cable industry has been making the point that actual TV usage patterns don't exactly match the way advertisers spend their TV ad dollars to reach their audience targets. It's an imbalance that cable networks hope to put a dent into during 2004-05 upfront negotiations, when some are expecting as much as $1 billion in TV ad budgets to shift from broadcast to cable. To reinforce that point, the cable industry this week is releasing new research showing the imbalance may be reaching new proportions. The research, which was conducted based on input from dozens of ad agency executives - including the research chiefs of six top media shops - goes beyond the quantitative numbers of Nielsen Media Research's ratings, which have already proven that cable now dominates the supply of TV rating points, especially among key demographic groups.

The new data, which comes from Knowledge Networks/SRI's highly regarded "How People Use TV" study, is designed to show what viewers' dispositions are toward the TV programming they watch. Not surprisingly, the research shows that cable TV networks may be a far more integral part of consumer lifestyles than Madison Avenue may give them credit for. That was something that MediaPost and InsightExpress found late last year when we conducted a series of studies on consumer media usage and the perceptions of media planners and buyers.

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But the new KN/SRI data also reveals some startling insights that have less to do with the notions of cable vs. broadcast TV, which challenge how planners and buyers value the TV dayparts they use. While so-called prime- time - the hours between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. (7-11 p.m. on Sunday) - do indeed command the shares of overall audiences that might justify the heavy advertising outlays the daypart reaps, the new study suggests it may not be as important a factor with one of the most coveted and an increasingly hard- to-reach audience segment: men 18 to 34.

The demo, which has been showing a pronounced erosion all season long, apparently favors late night TV programming, according to the KN/SRI findings. Asked what "hours you typically make a point to watch" TV, men 18 to 34 cited the hours between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. (see index below).

The finding is striking, because prime-time generally commands a dramatically higher share of TV advertising budgets, and significantly higher advertising costs, than late night. During the first quarter of 2004, for example, prime-time ad spending on the Big 3 broadcast networks was more than nine times greater than late night ad spending, according to estimates released today by the Broadcast Cable Financial Management Association (see related story today).

The research, which the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau will begin presenting to ad agencies and advertisers this week, indicates viewers generally have a much higher propensity to view and "affinity" with cable TV programming than they do with broadcast network TV. They also appear to have a higher regard for and claim to be more attentive to advertising on cable networks than on broadcast.

The research is expected to be a major counterpoint used by the cable industry to offset an aggressive trade advertising campaign from the major broadcast networks emphasizing their scale and power over cable TV.

Late Night Is Prime-Time For Young Men


% Of Total Viewer Men 18-35 Index*
8 p.m. - 9 p.m. 52% 88
9 p.m. - 10 p.m. 40% 91
10 p.m. - 11 p.m. 27% 102
11 p.m. - 12 a.m. 13% 118
12 a.m. - 1 a.m. 6% 212

Source: Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau from Knowledge Networks/SRI's "How People Use TV" (February/March 2004). Index: 100 = total viewers.
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