MEDIALITERACYCase StudyThe United Segments of America: Niche Marketing in Cable

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Individually, most cable television programs don’t generate very impressive audience numbers. A top network television program like The Big Bang Theory on CBS delivers about twenty-three million television viewers per episode. For the 2013–14 season, only three of the Top 50 most-watched television programs had their home on a cable channel (AMC’s Walking Dead at No. 4 with more than 18 million viewers, ESPN’s Monday Night Football at No. 15 with almost 14 million viewers, and A&E’s Duck Dynasty at No. 33 with just over 11 million viewers).¹ With the exception of these three programs, many cable hits draw closer to three or four million.

Yet taken together, cable television now attracts a larger total audience than the traditional television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and the CW). Moreover, a number of top advertisers, such as General Motors, are putting the majority of their television advertising budgets into cable, rather than broadcast network television. The key to cable’s success is its ability to attract highly specific audiences, which might explain why some cable shows are gaining in popularity despite competition from the Internet and other media, while network shows continue to dip. Cable can still offer advertisers attractive demographics that may not be as focused on a particular network series or online program.

For example, Bravo, home of The Real Housewives and Top Chef, bills itself as the best cable network to reach adult viewers ages twenty-five to fifty-four who have a household income greater than $150,000, hold top management positions, and have a graduate degree. Also, the Food Network is a top choice for reaching what it calls “upscale” women in this age bracket. These viewers are likely to be working women with a household income of $75,000 or more who have a Visa or MasterCard Gold card. Even news channels have niche audiences—Fox News Channel is known for being politically to the right of CNN and draws more male viewers, whereas CNN draws slightly more female viewers.

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MTV offers itself to advertisers as the one channel that “owns the young adult demographic.” MTV says that it is the “best way to connect” with the twelve to thirty-four age group, which at ninety-one million strong and growing represents 33 percent of the population and more than $250 billion in spending power. The median age of MTV’s viewers is 20.4. Similarly, Black Entertainment Television (BET) markets itself as the best way to reach African Americans, who spend more than $500 billion on consumer products annually. BET’s main focus, especially in prime time, is the demographic of African Americans ages eighteen to thirty-four.

Where do you find the older demographics? Flip between the History Channel and the Weather Channel (median age forty-six). To reach children, advertisers can look to the Cartoon Network, where the audience is composed of 70 percent kids and teens. However, Nickelodeon is the king of this demographic, delivering more children under the age of twelve than any other basic cable network. Even more specifically, Nickelodeon claims to deliver more women ages eighteen to forty-nine who have children under the age of twelve than any other basic cable network (apparently, the moms are watching with their children).

For women, Lifetime (with an audience of 76% women) is the top cable network, with Oxygen, Bravo, and HGTV competing for the same audience. For men, ESPN (with an audience of 75% men) is the leader, and it claims more high-income male viewers than any other ad-supported network. Other cable networks that skew heavily male include the Speed Channel (85% men), the Golf Channel (74.5% men), ESPN2 (72.3% men), and Comedy Central.

An interesting twist to the niche audience approach is that many stations have drifted away from their original niche over time. For example, MTV (Music Television) used to spend most of its time showing music videos. Similarly, the Learning Channel (now shortened to TLC) was founded in part and run by NASA in the 1970s, and when it became a staple of basic cable packages in the 1980s, it was focused on educational content, especially documentaries relating to things like science and nature. One can only guess at what those early founders and programmers thought when they flipped on TLC a couple decades later and got Toddlers and Tiaras and later Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

APPLYING THE CRITICAL PROCESS

DESCRIPTION Arrange to interview four to eight friends or relatives about their cable program tastes, devising questions about the shows they watch. Note how their preferences have changed over time. Be sure to collect demographic and consumer information: age, gender, occupation, educational background, place of birth, and current place of residence.

ANALYSIS Compose a chart comparing the viewing preferences among these people. Do you recognize any patterns emerging from the data? What kinds of shows do people of different ages and genders watch?

INTERPRETATION Based on what you have discovered and the patterns you have charted, determine what the patterns mean. Does age, gender, education, or geographic location matter in programming tastes? Why or why not? Why do you think various people’s television preferences developed as they did?

EVALUATION Determine how your interview subjects came to like the particular programs. What constitutes “good” and “bad” shows for them? Did their ideas change over time? How? Do you think their criteria are a valid way for cable companies to target audiences?

ENGAGEMENT To expand on your findings and see how they match up with industry findings, track down a cable company representative and ask whom the company is trying to target with its shows. How does the company find out about the program tastes of its consumers? Share your findings with the representative and discuss whether they match those of the company.