Tracking Red and Blue Buyers

It’s the beginning of a presidential election year, which typically brings heightened interest in current events and news coverage. And while certain news networks appeal to distinct audiences, are those viewers truly different in anything beyond their political allegiances? In other words, what’s in their shopping carts each week? TiVo Research examined the top 20 indexing product categories for viewers of Fox News Channel and MSNBC in primetime. The lists were more different than similar: Nine of the product categories were the same (indicated in bold in the charts below), and 11 were unique to each list.

Fox News Channel

Category                                               Index

Furniture polish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Hairspray/spritz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Cosmetics, lips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135

External analgesic rubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134

Bleach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129

Paper napkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121

Vitamins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121

Weight control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Frozen desserts, toppings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Wines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . 119

Coffee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . 118

Facial tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Hair coloring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Jellies/jams/honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Paper towels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Sugar substitutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Baked beans and brown bread . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115

Eye, contact lens care products . . . . . . . . . 115

Mayonnaise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Household cleaners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

MSNBC

Product                                  Index

Pasta (refrigerated) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Mouthwash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Cat litter, dog supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Cough syrup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Wines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Hair coloring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

External analgesic rubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Weight control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Cat food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113

Cosmetics, lips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Sugar substitutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Foils and wraps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Hand and body lotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Paper towels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Frozen dinners, entrees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Frozen meat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Ice cream, sherbert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Bleach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

Eye, contact lens care products . . . . . . . .105

Dish detergent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

SOURCE: TiVo Research. Based on primetime network ratings for third-quarter 2015. Heavy purchasing households are defined as the top 25% of the purchasing households for the specified category, based on total dollar expenditure per household. Indices are calculated by dividing the primetime rating for heavy brand purchasers for the specified network by the overall network primetime rating.