The CW at TCA: Mark Pedowitz on the Difficulties with Tracking the Elusive 18-34 Demographic - Ed Martin Live

Pasadena CA The CW39s day at the Winter 2013 Television Critics Association tour on Sunday was modest to say the least with only three panels that morning But they nevertheless made for a productive and impressionable few hours The day began with a session with CW President Mark Pedowitz which marked the first time the network has included a press conference with its top executive at a Winter Television Critics Association tour since 2007 It was followed by a panel for the quotSex and the Cityquot prequel quotThe Carrie Diariesquot amp8211 one of the best new series of the 201213 season amp8211 and one for quotCultquot a disturbing psychodrama about a killer who dangerously influences young viewers of a television program via a showwithinashow that is potentially controversial in light of recent tragedies involving mentally unstable young people and subsequent concerns about media contentAccurate audience measurement for the young demographic group The CW targets was a particularly vital topic during Pedowitz39s session quotWhat we39re seeing in tracking the 1834s which Nielsen has a little bit of difficulty tracking these days is a tremendous up tick in our initiated streams which means CWTVcom and Huluquot Pedowitz said quotWe39re up twice the amount Twenty percent of our total viewing audience over the course of time is coming from online and streaming and VOD So we look at everything as one piece not just overnight viewingquotAre there changes Nielsen needs to make that will adequately reflect where young viewers are since they aren39t necessarily watching traditional television one critic askedquotNielsen needs to technologically catch upquot Pedowitz declared quotI think they39re giving it a try Their people are hard working I think they just missed the boat in 1834 They39re just not capturing them Most of the people that you talk to in the 1834 demo particularly if they39re college age they do not have TVs They watch via their laptop or via their tablet or their mobile device Nielsen has not yet been able to successfully measure them though they39re trying with their online campaign ratings to capture that and make it part of the overall number we give to the advertisers Hopefully they will catch up Hopefully they will increase the size of the sample and hopefully they39ll find them But it39s been very difficultquotWhat about if Hulu for example was required to record a certain amount of viewing data the critic continued Wouldn39t that help the situationquotAt this moment in time Nielsen can39t track themquot Pedowitz repeated quotSo it39s just not an issue whether Hulu reports them or CWTVcom reports them They just cannot track themquotStill the network isn39t letting audience measurement challenges get in the way of maximizing its business model The CW has been able to quotmonetize our online viewing in ways very different than anyone elsequot Pedowitz explained quotWe run a full ad load with the fastforward disabled We do not run the same commercials that appear on C3 because Nielsen can39t measure them So we put a whole new group of commercials into those streaming shows We39re paid and compensated in that respectquotYou39re able to tell what the P2 impressions are because you can see what39s coming through the IP addressesquot he continued quotWe know when we serve the amount of impressions that have been guaranteed to advertisersquotReminded by another critic that executives at other networks have noted that the median age of the CW audience is 41 well above its 1834 target Pedowitz replied quotOur adult 1834 fourth quartertofourth quarter numbers were flat Our 1849 numbers were flat We grew our total viewers by 10 percent Part of the reason the audience aged somewhat was we did not expect that failed freshman drama 39Emily Owens MD39 would skew as old as it didquotCompounding the situation he continued is the challenge of tracking the substantial young audience that has come to the new superhero hit quotArrowquot In terms of online viewing the network knows quotArrowquot is doing quite well quotI39ve had conversations with Xbox which is an 1834 medium and 39Arrow39 is one of their No 1 showsquot Pedowitz said quotSo we know the 1834s are watching Traditional media has tended to be a little bit skewed a little bit olderquotThe CW did an excellent job of positioning the two new series it introduced after Pedowitz39s session It distributed copies of Sunday39s New York Times with a faux cover dated January 13 1984 at the start of the panel for quotThe Carrie Diariesquot which is set in that year along with DVD screeners of the first three episodes packaged in a sleeve for a quotsinglequot or quot45quot record The impact of the latter may not have been as strong as desired because many of the younger critics in the room had never seen a quot45quot Similarly there was a can of Tab soda placed at each seat prompting many of the young ones to ask if it was a new productPromotion at the tour for the creepy quotCultquot was far more subtle Strange messages targeting individual critics were inserted into closedcircuit programming in the critics39 rooms In terms of marketing and promotion quotCultquot is going to be a challenge for The CW as became clear during the session for the show when critics expressed difficulty in understanding exactly what it is aboutquotI watched the pilotquot one critic said during the quotCultquot panel quotWhat39s going onquotNot even executive producers Rockne S O39Bannon and Len Goldstein who were clearly very passionate about the show could provide clear concise answersquotWhat was interesting to me was to attempt to create a show that was truly unique and truly differentquot O39Bannon said quotAnd doing so yeah it can make it a little harder to explain and describe I have a great deal of faith and trust in the audience to be able to hook into that But we39re very aware of the fact that we have a complex multifaceted show going on and we39re trying to keep it as clear in our heads as possiblequot

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The CW at TCA: Mark Pedowitz on the Difficulties with Tracking the Elusive 18-34 Demographic - Ed Martin Live

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