Age matters

Recently, the show "Dancing with the Stars" topped "American Idol" in the number of viewers. This was quite a feat because as the New York Times article explains, "American Idol" has had quite a big and consistent following. What the article goes on to explain, though, is that just because a show has high ratings doesn't mean it gets to charge top dollar for it's commercials.

$ $ $
The money is what really counts, because as Media Society says, "Advertising is, after all, what pays the bills". You see, "Dancing with the Stars" and "American Idol" have two very different audience profiles; "Dancing"'s viewers tend to be women over 50 and "Idol"'s viewers are women as well, but younger. As result, advertisers seek to reach the younger audience.

Why is this, you ask?
Is it because they believe the younger are more susceptible to clever ads?

The president of KSL Media, David Sklaver, says that, "The audience for 'Dancing' is an attainable audience," and he noted that it might seem odd that, "advertisers tend to devalue the audience that has the most money," or in other words the older audience.

At first when I read this I was surprised because in our Media class we have discussed that advertisers typically seek the wealthier audience, but Sklayer goes on to explain that the younger audience doesn't watch as much TV, so they are less attainable. It's almost like the younger audience is playing hard to get (unintentionally, of course) and the advertisers are paying more for a chance to reach this group.

So, what does this article tell us? It gives us insight into the production perspective of TV. You see there are really only two ways to make money in the media, either selling units (the shows themselves) or selling advertising. This makes network TV completely ad-driven; and really if you think about it the programs only exist to lure us in to watch the advertisements! All this information confirms the power of advertisers and I think it is just important for us to be aware that the reason TV really exists is not really to entertain us, but to sell us stuff. This does not mean that television is evil or that you should never watch it; just know that the ads are there, whether blunt or placed carefully within the programs. Next time you want to buy a new product you've never tried before, ask yourself if you saw it on TV or what has influenced you in concluding that you ought to purchase it.

Cristi