Media talk for markle: The reason Fox News shook up the schedule and bumped Hannity for Megyn Kelly

It's because Fox needs younger viewers. The audience is too skewed towards old farts.
The business of television "news" is driven by advertising revenues. And seniors don't consume like the ad demo (ages 25-54) does.

Hannity appeals to the same audience WEBY does. Fox realizes that this audience is not going to sustain the share of ad revenues it desires, regardless of the total viewer ratings.
Follow the money. As always.

http://www.examiner.com/article/megyn-kelly-s-the-kelly-files-takes-sean-hannity-s-spot-on-fox-news

Hey how do you explain that I, an old fart would far rather watch Kelly than Hannity ?

TEOTWAWKI wrote:Hey how do you explain that I, an old fart would far rather watch Kelly than Hannity ?

Well I'm ten years out of the ad demo and I prefer Kelly too.
But in statistics that's called an anecdotal observation.  In other words,  you and I are exceptions to the rule (in terms of averages).  
When you measure the whole audience for Hannity,  he skews more than they like towards the older viewer.  And the hope is that Kelly will drop that average age in the time slot.
Hannity's ad demo numbers are a matter of record now.   How those figures might change with Kelly are yet to be determined.  But the "deciders" at Fox are pinning their hopes on her.

The key is the AVERAGE in the ratings measurements.
Hell I wasn't even "average" when I was inside the ad demo age range.
I wasn't buying the products/services pitched on Fox News (or any tv) even then.  Unless I was buying them second hand in yard sales which I did.  But my consuming habits added very little to the coffers of their advertisers.  
But my habits were not typical of the age range.  Again,  the AVERAGE
25-54 WAS buying more stuff from the Fox advertisers than the AVERAGE  older member of the audience does.  So to increase the bottom line you target the average audience.  Not you and me or other exceptions.

Fox News maintained its dominant position atop the cable news leaderboard in May, posting its highest-rated month since last November in both Total Viewers and primetime. But despite double digit gains in Total Viewers, the network was down in the A25-54 demo for the month.

The ratings for May, 2013 (Nielsen Live + Same Day data):

       Primetime (Mon-Sun): 1,973,000 Total Viewers / 308,000 A25-54
       Total Day Mon-Sun): 1,246,000 Total Viewers / 236,000 A25-54

Fox News was the third most-watched network in all of cable in both primetime and Total Day. The network had the top 13 programs in cable news in Total Viewers and the top eight programs in A25-54 viewers.

Compared to the same month last year, Fox News was up +24% in Total Viewers and down -5% in the A25-54 demographic in Total Day. In primetime, the network was up +17% and down -6%, respectively.

Fox News’ primetime shows reflected this trend. Compared to the same month last year, all three programs were up in Total Viewers and down in the A25-54 demographic. “The O’Reilly Factor” was up +11% in Total Viewers and down -11% in the demo, while “Hannity” was up +18% and down -8% and “On the Record With Greta Van Susteren was up +19% and down -5%.

The afternoon programming showed significant gains in Total Viewers: “America Live with Megyn Kelly” was up +37%, “Studio B with Shepard Smith” was up +40%, “Your World with Neil Cavuto” was up +38% and “The Five” was up +45%. Both “America Live” and “The Five” delivered their second highest-rated months ever in Total Viewers.

In the morning, “Fox & Friends” was up +16% in Total Viewers and down -5% in A25-54 viewers

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/may-2013-ratings-fox-news-gains-total-viewers-loses-younger-viewers_b181256

If it's indeed about the younger demographics... fox will have to reinforce what kids are taught in school...

like the most of the rest of the media.

PkrBum wrote:If it's indeed about the younger demographics... fox will have to reinforce what kids are taught in school...

like the most of the rest of the media.

This is just speculation on my part,  but I think Fox realizes that the mindset of the older audience Hannity appeals to is more hard line in it's thinking, just as Hannity is.  That audience wants to see Hannity keep saying night after night that anything republican is virtuous and anything democrat is evil.
I think Fox believes the younger audience (it wants to target for ad revenue reasons) is not as hard line,  same as Kelly.

Hannity is the only really major "news" performer who gets high ratings on both television and radio.  The reason Hannity works better on radio is because those radio syndication outfits (like Clear Channel which employs Hannity) do not have the same advertising model as televison (fox news) does.
If you listen to nationally syndicated talk radio,  you pretty quickly discover
that many if not most of it's advertisers are not mainstream.  They're pitching products/services which are more tailored to that older AM radio audience.  
Television (and this applies to Fox and all tv "news" programming) apparently does have to compete inside the mainstream advertiser market.
It can't rely on the same advertisers which target the talk radio audience.

They still put AM in radios ? what a waste of components...

TEOTWAWKI wrote:They still put AM in radios ? what a waste of components...

Most all of the radio audience for The Alex Jones Show is listening to AM.
Only a handful of his affiliates are on the FM band.

http://www.gcnlive.com/assets/forms/affiliates.pdf

If there were no longer any AM radio, Jones would lose most of his audience on radio. FM stations wouldn't carry it. It's not their forte.

By the way, compared to other nationally syndicated talk radio, Jones has a relatively insigifnicant radio audience to begin with. He's not even on the list Talkers magazine puts out...



It could be that Jones has a higher percentage of overall audience from those streaming his broadcasts on the web than is typical for other talk radio. Dunno. But for him to have the reach he needs, he better have that.

You'll notice that radio uses an entirely different ratings model than television does.
That Talkers magazine chart reflects the Arbitron "weekly cume".

Arbitron defines the weekly cume as the number of different listeners over a period of a week who tune into a radio program for at least 5 minutes.

The Nielsen and other television ratings are measuring their audiences in an entirely different way.

So when you hear Rush Limbaugh say he has "14 million" listeners (actually he inflates that figure to 20 million),  it's true only in the sense that
14 million different people listen to the show for at least 5 minutes, at least once a week.
Not that 14 million people are in the audience at any given time.  That number is far less.

Funny I went with a friend to see the Movie Prisoners last night and one of the bad guys was Named Alex Jones, and a line from the movie about him was "He has the mind of a 10 year old"...LOL"

TEOTWAWKI wrote:Funny I went with a friend to see the Movie Prisoners last night and one of the bad guys was Named Alex Jones, and a line from the movie about him was "He has the mind of a 10 year old"...LOL"

"Alex Jones" is not a terribly uncommon name so it could just be coincidence.
But I wouldn't rule out the possibility that it was an intentional slam against Jones on the part of the filmmaker or the screenwriter. I'd like to see more context on that though.
The movie gets good reviews so I'll give it a rental DVD viewing. Did you enjoy the movie?

By the way, my girlfriend rented a movie from redbox and then gave it to me to watch. "The Kings of Summer".
It's maybe the best movie I've watched all year. It's a little indie that is just superbly written (and acted).

Prisoners plot synopsis:

PRISONERS, from Oscar (R)-nominated director Denis Villeneuve, stars Oscar (R) nominees Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in a story that poses the question: How far would you go to protect your child? Keller Dover (Jackman) is facing every parent's worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces the only suspect's release. Knowing his child's life is at stake, the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family?

I dunno. When you give the lead heavy in a movie the name "Alex Jones", that might indicate more than just a coincidence. lol

Bob wrote:Prisoners plot synopsis:

PRISONERS, from Oscar (R)-nominated director Denis Villeneuve, stars Oscar (R) nominees Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in a story that poses the question: How far would you go to protect your child? Keller Dover (Jackman) is facing every parent's worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces the only suspect's release. Knowing his child's life is at stake, the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family?


I dunno.  When you give the lead heavy in a movie the name "Alex Jones",  that might indicate more than just a coincidence.  lol

On top of that Bob the Dad (Jackman), was a big time prepper....his basement looked like mine would..if I had a basement...It was a good movie...very long but only dragged a little. Lots of religion in it on the good and evil sides...Not the best but not a waste...

TEOTWAWKI wrote:On top of that Bob the Dad (Jackman), was a big time prepper....his basement looked like mine would..if I had a basement.

Well then the key to this would be how the filmmakers portrayed somebody being a "prepper".  If being a prepper was portrayed negatively,  and they gave the heavy character the name "Alex Jones",  then I think that gives us our answer.  
On the other hand,  if the movie spun Jackman's prepper character in a positive way,  then the filmmakers may have just been paying homage to Alex Jones rather than slamming him.

In either case,  when they put a prepper character in the movie and name another character Alex Jones,  if I had to bet on it I think we can at least conclude that either the film's director or screenwriter (or maybe both) is familiar with the Alex Jones phenomena you and I are familiar with.

Hannity lost a third of his audience after the election w/ all his rabid predictions. Kelley is not rabid and bitter like Hannity.

Dreamsglore wrote:Hannity lost a third of his audience after the election w/ all his rabid predictions. Kelley is not rabid and bitter like Hannity.

But see you have to qualify that.  If you looked at my post with the audience figures in red,  you see that Hannity is increasing his total viewer audience (as is all the Fox News programming).

So he isn't losing his overall total audience.  Just the age demographic which appeals to advertisers.

He lost a bunch of his audience as did O'Reilly. I don't believe what they saying.

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/sean_hannity_lost_half_his_tv_audience_after_the_election/

Dreamsglore wrote:http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/sean_hannity_lost_half_his_tv_audience_after_the_election/

"According to Nielsen numbers, Hannity lost around half of his audience in the weeks after the election"

It may be true,  but to have his ratings drop in half would be almost unheard of.  I'd have to see more to corroborate that claim before I would accept it.
In any case, even if it is true, the audience has come back. Because I know for a fact his ratings now are not half what they were before the election.

Okay if these figures are correct then I guess he did lose half his audience at that point. I sure missed the reports of that when it was happening. Wow.

"In the days after, according to Nielsen ratings, Hannity’s nightly audience plummeted to 1.95 million. He lost nearly 50 percent of his viewers, more than 50 percent in the coveted 25-54 age group."

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/12/31/bad-news-at-fox-news-hannitys-ratings-plummet/

Dreamsglore wrote:Hannity lost a third of his audience after the election w/ all his rabid predictions. Kelley is not rabid and bitter like Hannity.

Please show your source for that claim. Virtually every news outlet lost viewers and readers after the election. Please show where Hannity lost a third of his audience. NOT from the DailyKOS, DemocratUnderground or the like.

If not, would it not be fair to say you lied?

How about the NY Daily News? Oh and it was half.LOL!

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sean-hannity-big-loser-2012-election-article-1.1228269

Markle,

If you read my link it was to a page written by the tv editor in The New York Daily News.
And he clearly states that "According to Nielsen numbers, Hannity lost around half of his audience in the weeks after the election".

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sean-hannity-big-loser-2012-election-article-1.1228269#ixzz2iIuh5CDl

The New York Daily News is a legitimate major newspaper (has the fourth highest circulation of any daily newspaper in the country).
It's very implausible that the tv reporter in that newspaper would report that if it wasn't true. He would know (and so would his editors) that he would have been called out on it immediately. And I can find no challenge to it in a web search.

Here is another report. In January after the November election, Maddow beat Hannity in the ad demo. So I think that also lends support to his drop in the ratings bigtime following the election...

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/tuesday-ratings-msnbcs-maddow-beats-foxs-hannity-in-the-demo/