In an unprecedented increase, Fox (NWS) network had its demographic jump in age by five years since the fourth quarter of 2005. What's unusual about it is that normally these spikes move only by about a year up and down.
Nielsen says that in the last quarter of 2005, the median age watching Fox was 37, now its moved up to 42 in just one year.
The major reason for this happening, according to Lyle Schwartz, senior vice president and media research director for Mediaedge:cia: "What happened was that they dropped their young comedies and went to older-skewing dramas. Five years is significant, I don't recall any jump being that large. Usually, it's a year or two."
Schwartz added that while the move was huge, that it probably won't impact things too much, as the network will still retain its audience in the key 18-49 demographic, it'll just move to the older side of the age grouping.
Analysts also pointed out that even with the change, Fox still has the lowest median age than ABC (Dis), CBS (CBS) and NBC (GE).
The only major network that has had a falling median age has been NBC, which dropped from an average of 49 to 47, most of that attributed to their popular new "Heroes," which averages about 40 years.
CBS hasn't moved at all, retaining a median average of 52, and ABC finished the fourth quarter of 2006 with an average of 47, up one from the year before.
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