TV's Reach Metric Rises For Young Viewers

Major broadcast TV networks’ reach metric of young consumers rose “significantly” in October.

Pivotal Research Group says there was a 2% to 4% gain among 18- to-34-year-old viewers -- with hikes of 4% at Fox (62.6% reach among those viewers); 3.9% at CBS (61.8%); 3.5% at NBC (to 61%); and 1.7% at ABC (58.3%).

Strong gains were also witnessed at two cable news networks -- Fox News Channel at 4.8% (to a 15.4% reach ) and CNN at 3.4% (to 19.7% reach).

“The expanded reach for Fox News and CNN is unsurprising, given the election, but the expansion in reach among broadcast networks suggests some degree of success in airing programming that appeals to younger viewers,” writes Brian Wieser, senior research analyst of Pivotal.

Among the highest in reach currently for 18- to-34-year-old viewers are FX (33.7%); ESPN (33.4%); Comedy Central (29.1%); TNT (29%); and Freeform (28.6%).

Reach refers to the total number of different people or households exposed at least once to a medium during a given period. It is important for marketers, says Pivotal’s Wieser because the aim for media buying packages is to have “less unintended duplication.”

Major broadcast networks have a reach of 85% to 88% of households watching each network for at least one minute during the month. On a overall viewer basis, the reach range is 72% to 75%, which fell slightly versus a year ago.

2 comments about "TV's Reach Metric Rises For Young Viewers".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, November 28, 2016 at 4:05 p.m.

    These findings should not be a surprise for anyone who bothers to study the numbers. In a given day, a typical broadcast TV network, which reaches only 2% of all adults per minute across all dayparts, cumes to a 24-hour reach of about 18%. In our upcoming  annual. "TV Dimensions 2017", we estimate that an average fully programmed braodcast TV network---ABC, CBS or NBC----reaches 38% of the adult population with one or more shows in a week and 73% in a month. Moreover combinations of networks expand reach even higher, with all three, together, reaching 62% per week, 81% per month and 87% over three months. We also analyze the reach potential of various other TV audience platforms---independent stations, network affiliates ( local shows only ), and low to high rated cable channels. What stands out in all of the data is TV's continued ability to  maximize reach---despite fragmenting average minute ratings.

  2. John Grono from GAP Research, November 28, 2016 at 5:54 p.m.

    Interesting data Ed.

    I thought I'd provide the same sort of data for our major Australian capital cities (about two-thirds of our population) based on the past four weeks.   We also have a simpler market with three commercial free-to-air (FTA) broadcasters, two government funded broadcasters (one more niche), and one major subscription TV cable/satellite service (STV) that is in around one-in-three homes.

    Like the US, each broadcaster and the subscription TV averages around 2% of the population (except the niche govt channel around 0.5%) meaning that averaging all the minutes across the day around 10% of the population is watching TV.

    Regarding cume/reach, on a daily basis the commercial FTAs average 27%-36%, the major govt channel averages 29%, the niche govt channel averages 15%, and STV averages 19%.   Total TV averages 64% cume per day.

    On a weekly basis, the commercial FTAs average 58%-67%, the major govt channel averages 58%, the niche govt channel averages 41%, and STV averages 29%.   Total TV averages 86% cume across a week.

    On a 4-weekly basis, the commercials FTAs cume to 78%-84%, the major govt channel cumes to 77%, the niche govt channel cumes to 62%, and STV cumes to 33%.   Total TV cumes to 95% over the 4 weeks.

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