Your neighborhood, your city, your country — the need to know what’s going on at any given time is inextricably connected to our survival and even, one could argue, our very humanity. That critical need to be informed has given rise to a myriad of ways in which information — specifically, what is generically called “the news” — can be accessed and consumed. From robust social-media offerings to a spider web of ways to view television, both on a big screen and on our personal devices, we can now literally watch news wherever we go.

And we do. Looking at overall viewing, news continues to hold the top spot in viewing categories. In this category, people 25-34 watch more news than any other program genre, accounting for 11% of viewing share, and people 35-54 account for an impressive 15% share [1]. But the real winner in news viewing is the 55-64 demo which, while smaller in range of years, accounts for more viewership share than each of the other two groups with a 16% share [2]. The devotion to news viewership among adults 55-64 should be underscored — and valued for their loyalty.

Also: Nielsen Executive Shows Support For Expanding Age Demo to 25-64

Not only do older adults watch the most news, but the 55-64 demo brings an overall lift to impressions. By aggregating the 55-64 demo with the 24-54 key demo, total impressions from all sources — broadcast, cable, All Other Tuning (AOT [3]) and nontraditional viewing sources (non-households using television, or HUT [4] ) — increased by an impressive 56.5% in April 2022 [5] (up from an also impressive lift of 54.9% in April 2021). 

The way we view continues to evolve: Households viewing from non-HUT sources grew 8% on a year-over-year basis, with a disproportionate amount of that change coming from people 25-34, who shifted their viewing to non-HUT sources by 10%. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reliable 55-64 news viewers switched to non-HUT sources the least, at 6% [6]. Importantly, let’s not forget that this 55-64 demo generally holds more net worth and has more discretionary income than the younger demos. ICYMI, check out this piece on the buying power of 55-64. 

And consider brand loyalty: Common guidance is that the battle of the brands is fought in the early years, making the younger demos the sought-after consumer. But current Nielsen studies show that the 55-64 demo, in addition to being the leading consumer of news, is also open to trying new brands. Looking at the sum of incremented, consecutive brand purchases [7], there is very little difference between repeat brand purchases among 55-64 compared to other younger groups. All groups are declining in this metric, and therefore open to new brands within a category. [8]

Digging deeper into an example of brand loyalty in a specific and ultra-important category — automotive — data shows that people 55-64 are more likely to own multiple brands of vehicles —- high-end, luxury, etc. The list goes on and just gets even more impressive. [9]

As we think and plan for the future of news and monetizing the news audience, the expanded demo of 25-64 illustrates a trusted, reliable, profitable part of the equation. Yes, the world will still turn, people will find new ways to stay informed, but the 55-64 demo will continue to robustly watch and spend. And the data has shown that they have the resources to do just that. ▪️

1. Nielsen, NLTV, viewing by genre, April 2022.
2. Nielsen: NLTV, viewing by genre, April 2022.
3. AOT - All Other Tuning: Content that cannot be identified by codes or matching audio signatures; therefore, cannot be assigned to a final distributor (and thus a station code). In order for content to be considered the unencoded/unmatched content must originate from a HUT (households using television) device such as a TV or set-top box. 2022 Nielsen Local Reference Supplement.
4. Non-HUT: Not a Household Using Television source — Alternate ways of viewing TV, memory stick, camera or portable/handheld game, as defined by HUT. 2022 Nielsen Local Reference Supplement.
5. Nielsen: NPower: Live-plus-same day, total day % of share by total use of television, April 2021 vs. April 2022.
6. Nielsen: NPower, Live-plus-same day, total day impressions, April 2022.
7. Nielsen Catalina Solutions: Brand Loyalty August 2018-July 2021.
8. Nielsen Catalina Solutions: Brand Loyalty August 2018-July 2021.
9. Scarborough USA Plus, 2021 Release 2: “Likelihood to own another car brand vs U.S. Adult.” 

A Nielsen executive has come out in support of expanding one of the key demographic targets used by many advertisers to buy commercials from age 25-54 to 25-64.

As the audience for traditional television has gotten older, broadcast and cable sales and research executives have argued that Madison Avenue’s fixation on younger viewers is costing them money by devaluing the majority of their audiences. They also argue that by ignoring mature viewers, marketers are ignoring consumers with wealth and purchasing power. 

In a guest blog published by Broadcasting+Cable  Monday, Nielsen VP Sue Tremblay argues that including people 55 to 64 would incorporate half of the Baby Boomer generation and all Gen Xers.

Those mature Americans have an average household net worth of $504,000, compared to the $450,000 net worth for households led by 35-to-54-year-olds.

A+E Networks in particular has been campaigning to get the industry to count mature viewers. A+E also contends that marketers don’t do a good job of depicting older consumers in commercials, turning them off. ■

El Rey Network, the male-centric channel founded by director Robert Rodriguez to reach Latinos and others in the 18-to-49 demo, wants to expand its base by reaching out to working-class men of all backgrounds, a reaction in part to the surprising election of Donald Trump as the next president.

The network’s target group, dubbed “strivers,” represents working- and middleclass male viewers who defy typical age and race metrics to represent more of a sociographic class, network president and general manager Daniel Tibbets said. He pointed to a recent Wall Street Journal report stating that this group of Hispanic, black and Asian workers, ages 18 to 63, with less than a bachelor’s degree level of education, is projected to represent the majority of U.S. workers by 2032.

Tibbets, former chief operating officer of digital content service Machinima, spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the 45-million subscriber network’s new brand positioning and its plans to increase original programming by 50%, both on the linear channel and on social media platforms.

MCN:How would you currently define the El Rey Network brand and target audience?

Daniel Tibbets: I would define it as a multiplatform brand that represents the voices, tastes, lifestyle and attitude of culturally diverse people everywhere. It has been, and continues to be, positioned in a very authentic viewpoint as representing America, which is very diverse — something I don’t think entertainment companies have done that authentically right.

Today, you hear a lot about diversity and a lot about companies saying, “Oh we have to go there.” That’s not authentic. When Robert created this network, he created it because he wanted to have people like him represented on the screen in the right way. So when we think about development and programming production, and even our operation as a whole, we’re living, breathing and talking about that point of view in the right way.

What we’re starting to say now is that our audience is working-class America, which is now becoming middleclass America. So that working-class, middle-class America is the social-economic status that we’re seeing.

One of the leading factors of this, which I think is not being addressed in the market today, is that by 2032 the majority of the working class/new middle class of America will be the minorities in this country, and it’s being led by Latinos. We’re calling our audience strivers because when you look at who is ultimately watching our network, that’s who they are.

We’re not going away from our Latino heritage or positioning. It’s the simple fact that our audience, from a social-cultural-economic standpoint, is growing and it’s growing to be more diverse.

MCN:How do you sell the network’s more sociographic focus to advertisers who are predominantly looking to reach viewers by demographic?

DT: What I’m finding is, advertisers are more interested in following the consumer across dayparts and devices. So, if I know I’m going after a particular psychographic consumer — which is more valuable to me as an advertiser, because I know exactly who they are and know their buying habits and what they’re interested in — then the question is, how am I tracking while they’re using mobile or the computer while they’re watching TV?

We’re following that consumer and providing them the information about my brand, and that’s more valuable at the end of the day to advertisers. We know who that consumer is and we know that they skew African-American and Latino, and we know that they’re watching the brand across multiple platforms.

Right now, our total audience viewership is more than 50% minorities — African-American, Latino and Asian. So we made a strategic decision to focus the brand voice on this new working class and middle class we define as diverse people that live by a code and are going to leave their mark. They create their own lane and they’re not following the status quo. They’re looking to achieve independence; they excel at a craft. When you say working class, I think a lot of advertisers identify with that.

MCN:How will El Rey’s content reflect the network’s new brand identity?

DT: I think what the election kind of highlighted is that working-class America goes home. They want to click on the TV and they want to be entertained. El Rey does that very well, whether it’s through kung fu and action movies or original series like [wrestling series] Lucha Underground — it’s escapism.

We’re making a big commitment to do even more original programming in 2017, which we’re going to talk about after the first of the year. But all that development is falling into the lines of our commitment to target strivers and feature diversity in our programming.

We’re going to be moving into non-scripted lifestyle programming that again represents the hobbies and interests of strivers … one can imagine the docuseries that we can move into. Scripted of course will remain a big foundation of the network. We will continue to talk about some new scripted series in 2017.

MCN:Will you look to be aggressive in developing programming in the digital space?

DT: There will also be original content creation that absolutely represents our brand and our audience in digital and social media. We want to develop content that creates interest and excitement for the brand on Facebook Live or Snapchat or YouTube — whatever the digital platform is — but also creates awareness and viewership for the network as a whole. It becomes more of a content brand strategy.