2004 Annual Report - Network TV Audience

The ratings trends for nightly newscasts are a problem by themselves, but the age issue makes the long-term prospects even more complicated. Not only are their audiences shrinking, but they are also getting older. The commercials on a network evening newscast tell something about the audience. They are often a string of pharmaceutical ads aimed at older Americans.

The median age of network evening news viewers in 2003 (from 59.5 for ABC to 61.2 for CBS)¹⁷ is around 10 years older than network programming as a whole (which was 45.7 to 52.2 in 2002). For the American population as a whole, the median age is 35.3.¹⁸ This makes the nightly news a less attractive sell to advertisers, preoccupied with youth (see Economics) and thus less lucrative for the networks. According to network officials, the ad rates networks can charge for older audiences are substantially less, perhaps even a third lower, than those charged for the youngest demographics.¹⁹ In terms of long-term strategy, moreover, what happens in 10 years when a significant portion of the network news audience has died?