Idol v.s. Dancing showdown - 美國偶像

紐約時報針對Dancing With the Stars在觀眾人數上贏過AI一事提出看法.
AI以年輕女性觀眾為主, DWTS以年老女性觀眾為主(50歲以上).
廣告客戶偏愛以年輕觀眾為主的節目.
AI每30秒廣告價碼為$642,000, DWTS為$209,000.


An ‘Idol’ Ratings Loss, but Not in Its PocketbookBy BILL CARTER

Published: April 6, 2010

THE hit show “American Idol” has been the playground bully of prime time
for so long that it’s not surprising that long-suffering competitors relish
every opportunity to tweak its sky-high nose.

So ABC can hardly be blamed for bragging that last week’s edition of its own
reality show hit, “Dancing With the Stars,” attracted more viewers (23
million) than “Idol” (21.8 million). In much the same way, NBC was elated
when it topped “Idol” on one night of its Winter Olympics coverage in
February.

And certainly the latest cast of “Dancing” has attracted quite a bit of
media attention, with names like Buzz Aldrin, the former astronaut, and Kate
Gosselin, the reality star, among the competitors.

But any effort to push “Dancing” as a real threat to the might of “Idol”
where it really counts — ad dollars — is at best premature. It may be
fairer to label it folly. According to figures on commercial costs issued by
the Nielsen company, “Idol” is charging about $642,000 for each 30-second
commercial in its current run. The most recent figures for “Dancing” come
from last fall’s edition, when it was charging about $209,000.

Why the huge disparity? Because the two shows, while now close in overall
viewers, have vastly different audience profiles. These can be summed up in
simple terms: “Dancing” is heavily female and older; “Idol” is heavily
female and younger.

“Dancing” is a show with a serious tilt toward women viewers over 50 years
old. Last week, for example, of those 23 million total viewers, 10 million,
or about 43 percent, were women over 50. (Another 3.9 million were men over
50.)

“Idol,” which has crept up a bit in overall age in the last few years, had
a little more than half as many women over 50, 5.7 million, and slightly
fewer men in that age group, 3.4 million.

This matters because concentration of audience remains a factor for many
marketers. “Advertisers are not going to pay a premium to reach an audience
with a profile like the one that ‘Dancing’ has,” said Brad Adgate, the
senior vice president for research at Horizon Media.

When a show has a disproportionate number of women over 50 in its audience,
it simply cannot charge as much for commercials. That is not because
advertisers do not like older women, but because they are so easy to find all
over the rest of television.

“The audience for ‘Dancing’ is an attainable audience,” said David
Sklaver, the president of KSL Media, which buys commercial time for
advertisers. He noted that it might seem odd that “advertisers tend to
devalue the audience that has the most money” — that is, older viewers.

But the scarcity argument tends to rule: advertisers pay more to reach people
who do not watch much television. Thus, the most prized viewers of all watch
the least amount of television: men under 35. The younger women who watch “
Idol” are also highly valuable to certain advertisers.

“Categories like soft drinks and beer and gadgets want ‘Idol’ viewers,”
Mr. Sklaver said. (Gadgets include tech products like computers and phones.)

Shows like “Idol” continue to be able to charge sizable premiums to
advertisers because the audience composition includes a lot of those younger
people — and in a better concentration.

Still, “Dancing” hardly has anything to apologize for: Its audience is so
big that it includes strong ratings with younger adults as well. So far, the
show is doing better with younger viewers than it did in its fall edition,
though it still lags “Idol.”

This Monday, “Dancing” averaged a 5 rating among the 18- to 49-year-old
audience that is the bulls-eye for most advertisers, while the most recent “
Idol” hit a 7.7 in that category.

That is closer than the gap was between those two shows. And as Mr. Adgate
noted, the breadth of the audience for both shows is appealing to many
advertisers.

“Advertisers like a big-tent show,” Mr. Adgate said. “There are many more
TV sets than there are people now, so there is appeal to a show that gathers
the family in the living room. It enhances engagement with the show, and
probably the commercials.”

Mr. Sklaver said that “Dancing” should be able to make up some of the ad
income differential by attracting advertisers of “major purchase items”
like automobiles.

“Look at me, I’m 50-plus,” Mr. Sklaver said. “I’m not even counted. And I
’m in the market right now for a new car.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/business/media/07adco.html


--


--