Old and Busted. New Hotness. Or why Hulu matters.
A few weeks ago, a major media buyer released a report on the average viewership age for network television programming. It concluded that the average age of network television viewers was now 50.
Lets take a look at the live viewership per network:
Data from Silicon Alley Insider
And now lets look at DVR viewership over a 7-day period per network:
Data From Silicon Alley Insider
Notice anything?
Aside from the 20 year gap between the average CBS Viewer and the average CW viewer, the DVR doesn’t change things very much.
Now let’s add Hulu into the equation for DVR Viewership:
Data From Silicon Alley Insider & TV Week
The average age of a Hulu viewer is 32 years old. While the average viewer age on DVR only drops 1 year from live viewership on NBC and Fox, their joint venture, Hulu drops the average viewership age by at least 12 years for Fox and by 17 years for NBC.
Hulu started off as a way to prevent networks from turning $100 bills into 100 pennies, but it might be just the reverse. It’s the cheap yuppie’s DVR, but with one huge advantage for the networks: no fast forwarding through commercials.
If I were NBCU and Fox, I’d put on a big show at the Upfronts with a simple motto:
Hulu: It’s like TiVo with commercials and the kids like it.
