Search »

Fox Audience Ages by Five Years

Fox’s median age leapt five years in the space of a single year, from 37 years old in the fourth quarter of 2005 to 42 years old in the same quarter in 2006.

While networks tend to age or regress only by a year or so, Fox’s aging should not be a huge concern to buyers. For one thing, Fox dropped their young comedies and went with older skewing dramas, Lyle Schwartz, senior vp and media research director for Mediaedge:cia is quoted as saying in MediaPost.

Too, Fox’s median age will still be lower than ABC, CBS and NBC, and the network will still likely win in the valuable 18-49 demo - as long as American Idol, 24, and House do as well as expected.

The only network with a median age under 40 in the fourth quarter was The CW, at 32. For the 2005-06 season, The CW’s predecessors, WB and UPN, were at 36.6 and 31.1 respectively.

ABC’s median age was 47 in the fourth quarter, up from 46 from the same period last year. CBS held steady at 52, while NBC dropped from 49 to 47. Much of NBC’s drop can be accredited to Heroes, which has a median age of around 40.