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I call shenanigans on these stats! Who under 50 doesn’t have a DVR these days to skip all the ads for viagra and incontinence issues and to watch what you want when when you want? It’s only the older folks who aren’t into tech and don’t have young’uns to hook them up with one.
So, they don’t count people with DVRs which skews the stats older which causes shows to be made for oldersters (and as someone over 50 I’m generally bored by them) which causes the younger ones to stop watching and… It’s a vicious circle produced by the flawed stats.
TV viewers’ average age hits 50
The broadcast networks have grown older than ever — if they were a person, they wouldn’t even be a part of TV’s target demo anymore.
According to a study released by Magna Global’s Steve Sternberg, the five broadcast nets’ average live median age (in other words, not including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last season. That’s the oldest ever since Sternberg started analyzing median age more than a decade ago — and the first time the nets’ median age was outside of the vaunted 18-49 demo.
Fueling the graying of the networks: the rapid aging of ABC, NBC and Fox. The three nets continue to grow older, while CBS — the oldest-skewing network — has remained fairly steady.
“The median ages of the broadcast networks keep rising, as traditional television is no longer necessarily the first screen for the younger set,” Sternberg wrote.
The other screwy statistic is that people in the 18-49 group think that giving the finger or presenting photos that give it is a stairway to heaven that’s missing some important steps.
CBS not growing older ??? How can it, it is ALREADY DEAD !!! And if the Viewing Demographic is getting older, they will just have to extend it year by year ! After all, don’t seniors have more disposable income than teens ? Follow the Money !!!
I don’t have a DVR. As long as the DVD recorders are cheap, that is what I’ll buy.
Within my circle of friends, all of us mostly in our mid-40s, none of us have a DVR. In my family and in my wife’s I think one of the 20-somethings got one with his sat service. Otherwise, no DVRs.
It’s the median, not the mean. If the tail on the distribution is heavity skewed or there’s kurtosis then the median can slide quite a ways from the mean.
heavity == heavily
I love my DVR. There are tons of shows I like that I can’t really fit in my schedule. Penn & Teller’s show comes on too late for me, I’m an old fart that goes to work early. I spend most weeknights with the wife and kids and TV doesn’t really fit in it. But while my wife is at work on the weekends, and my kids are asleep (teenagers), I can catch up on the shows I missed through the week. I only have to make time to fix some snackage, mow the grass, maybe take some target practice with my son.
Actually, they DO count DVRs in the stats. That started last season when the penetration became high enough to be significant.
I think your BS meter is dead on. The estimated US median age this year is 36.7 years according the CIA fact book.
It also makes fascinating bathroom reading.
Hell, I’m 49 and a half, and I still use a VHS VCR on a daily basis. When it quits, I’m moving to a DVD-rewriteable recorder fed by my DTV converter.
I don’t know a living soul who owns a hard-drive based DVR. Arent’t there monthly subscription fees for those damn things?
Where does it say DVRs aren’t counted? Those things usually keep track of all your viewing and report back to the companies. That’s how Tivo could say Janet Jackson was the most replayed item ever.
There’s a monthly subscription fee, though you can build your own.
This is what you can expect when you have a model paid for by advertising, and one cohort skips the ads.
I guess we’ll see something similar with the illegal downloading. More old people movies and date movies.
OverMaster said: “Hell, I’m 49 and a half…”
But, you’re not in your 50’s 😉
P.S. I’m 48 9/10
I’m over fifty. I have a HD DVR, which I use a lot. Skip most commercials. Tossed my VCR and Laser Discs. I do have a DVD recorder.
Sold most of my DVD’s, now I just Netflix
instead of buying. My only recent major purchase an HD TV. I’m considering using my Gov Stimulus check for a larger PC monitor or believe it or not a Sony PS3.
The article makes the point that “traditional television is no longer necessarily the first screen for the younger set.”
Which is true. Thanks to the DVR, VCR, IPTV, and hundreds of cable channels and the Internet to choose from, the average for younger viewers is thinned out.
Older viewers stick with basic cable and watch the same channels again and again, and don’t channel-surf. For the network (and their advertisers) these are the ideal viewers. So it’s not surprising that for their “key” statistics the average age of the viewer is rising.
Who the heck are all these people without DVRs? The cable company is handing them out left and right over here. I don’t think you can even get a cable box anymore WITHOUT a DVR built in.
The only people who don’t want DVRs are people who haven’t used them. Once you do you never want to go back. They’re not just for skipping ads.
I use the poor mans DVR. It is called Bittorrent.
#17 Well aren’t you special.
Way too many commercials… plus they turn up the sound on them.. I’m watching less and less..
I’m 46, and no DVR, or cable, or satellite. Just wabbit ears and more recently, digital converter box. I get more channels with digital than with analog, but just like when I have had cable, more channels just means more crap.
There WAS one show that I watched religiously, which is Eastenders, broadcast for decades by a local PBS affiliate. They dropped it last week! For those who don’t know, it is a BBC soap opera. The broadcasts here were a few years old, and we can take up where they left off by downloading off the web, it doesn’t matter much. For the record, when they moved Eastenders from Friday at 7 to the middle of the day a year or so ago, we used a VHS VCR to catch it.
Less TV = more time for better things. In fact, since getting the additional digital channels, I find that I watch even less television. :).
The stat is absolutely correct. Just read the definitions–ie, what is being measured and for whom.
Amusing to see shennanigans called because someone thinks SOME OTHER definitions ought to apply?
What are advertisers paying for?==eyes watching their commercials.
What does this survey measure?==eyes that watch the commercials.
If you were paying for commercials would you want to know who was watching them, or who was fast forwarding thru them with a dvr?
Same thing is happening with movies. Producers want to sell tickets and the movies that have people going back 10-15-20 times is what makes a blockbuster===so movies are aimed at teens.
Its all definitional. Statistics don’t lie. People just don’t understand them. Its a kind of math and has “rules” after all.
“Who under 50 doesn’t have a DVR these days”
I’m 34 and only know 2 people with a dvr and I’m in a media studies department.
The fact is that this article focused on network television. Very few of my friends watch network television on a regular basis. The only show they mention that I regularly watch is “Family Guy”. I’ve never even heard of “Canterbury’s Law” or “Life Is Wild.”
Hey. No fair. This chick with the finger is 70.
I have another theory on why this statistic sounds fishy. Years ago when I had a land-line telephone I regularly, in addition to telemarketers, got calls from the people who do radio and TV ratings wanting me to be a part of their study. Once went to cell-phone only the calls stopped.
Now, I don’t know how the subjects of this survey were picked, but what if the over 50 watching TV crowd was just the only ones who answered the phone? Or were the only ones who had the free time to take part?
Geez, I thought most everyone on cable had a CVR in their cable box. I always have.
I’m surprised the number is so low. The poll measures the age of people who watch tv directly rather than thru a dvr. Now, who does THAT other than an old fuddy duddy?
Who has an attention span so short they take the Headline as the truth without reading or understanding the supporting article? Yep==them’s with a dvr. Average age 35. Average IQ of 100. Average political IQ==85.
Netflix instant movies, Bit Torrent to um .. preview movies, watching TV on YouTube or DailyMotion, Joost, Scifi Rewind, the new 99 cent rental prices at Blockbuster, TV on Demand, DVRs
TV is very inconvenient and in 5-7 years it is going to start feeling the pressure in a big way.
#26
As a recovering statistician I know that occasionally stats will surprise you when you actually find something interesting. However, most of the time when stats surprise you it’s because the method to gather them is flawed.
There is lots of scientific review of data gathering techniques but at the end of the day simple, insightful common sense is usually right. I wouldn’t be surprised if your observation is uncannily accurate.
Uncle Dave, are shenanigans more deceitful than tomfoolery?