Complete Story
04/15/2015
Media age of network TV viewer rises to 57
The three major broadcast networks continue to see a rising median age of their prime-time viewers -- now 57 years old -- all of which could be an issue for TV advertisers.
Media Dynamics, a media consulting company, says this is 19 years older than the median age of the total U.S. population -- 38 years old. For ABC, CBS, and NBC, the average prime-time share of audience is 25%.
In 1990 -- when those three networks had an 63% average share of audience -- the median age of broadcast prime-time viewers for ABC, CBS, and NBC was 41. Back then, the median age of the U.S. population was 33, notes Media Dynamics
Thirty years before that — in 1960 — the networks' median age of prime-time viewers was 34, while the median age of the U.S. population was 30. In 1960, those networks had a 92% share of the TV audience.
Currently, many TV and advertising executives are concerned about how to maintain younger millennials who watch TV less frequently.
