Before setting our idea in stone we looked at exactly who our target audience is. At the beginning of the project we decided that the MTV generation was who would be viewing our video most. However, when we came to think about our audience in detail we realised that we didn’t know who this was. Our initial idea was that we were targeting people of a similar age to ours and a little older, however, after a straw pole within our class, only 3 of the 7 people who had access to MTV actually watched it, meaning we were targeting the wrong age group. We then researched MTV’s audience demographic and came across the following article; it clearly explains MTV audience in detail and describes the power the channel has and how sought after their advertising space is.
The network's identity
MTV is more than a cable network. It’s an easily identifiable brand that advertisers know reaches the coveted but tough-to-find young adults the broadcast networks have for years struggled to attract.
“MTV has a great story because they pretty much own the young-20s college-age niche,” says Jordan Breslow, director of broadcast research at MediaCom. “They obviously got away from music videos, which was their bread and butter when they first started. But there are other places to get that. People are streaming them from the internet, and Fuse network is now what MTV was when it started.”
The network's target audience
MTV, its music-focused offshoot MTV2, and its online site target people 12-24 almost to the exclusion of other demographic groups. Still, MTV is a high-rated network in most other demos.
“Our notion is to stay perpetually young,” says Graden. “Viewers at a certain time in their life may watch a lot of MTV and then perhaps move on to other things. That is why our median age has stayed around 21.”
The network's ratings
MTV isn’t merely a targeted cable network. From the perspective of viewers, it’s simply a network like Fox and the WB are networks.
In fact, MTV shows such as “Real World: Philadelphia,” the series’ 15th installment, and specials like “They Wanted a Famous Face” pull ratings among 18-24s that are comparable to those for programs like Fox’s “The Simpsons,” the WB’s “Gilmore Girls,” UPN’s “America’s Next Top Model,” and even CBS’s “Survivor: Palau.”
In the week of March 7, MTV had three shows, including top-10 ranked “Real World,” among the 30 highest-rated cable and broadcast programs in the 18-24 demographic.
The network's competitive set
MTV is the highest-rated network among people 12-24. But it stands on top, not alone. Other networks are competitive in the demo, including the comedy-focused TBS, Comedy Central, Nick at Nite, Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, Spike TV, USA, BET and ABC Family.
What’s new for 2005/06
MTV will continue to roll out new shows pretty much all year round and it has annual events like its Music Video Awards and the MTV Movie Awards.
Graden says MTV’s new and upcoming programs are moving beyond pure unscripted reality shows.
“Our next wave of programs tend to be adventurous. Some are reality hybrids with integrated writing and acting along with reality elements,” he says. “'Laguna Beach' was shot like a drama, so it blurred the lines between reality and drama. We try to not to repeat ourselves.”
The network's upfront outlook
MTV’s story this upfront is likely to be a familiar one. And that’s not a bad thing.
The network will focus on its young viewers, hot new shows, good ratings and the seemingly endless cross-promotional deals offered by its parent company, Viacom. MTV will offer advertisers packages with MTV2, which has a slightly more male skew than the flagship network, and its online site. But there are many other deals available with Viacom’s other properties, including VH1, Comedy Central and young-skewing broadcast network UPN.
The final prognosis
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being excellent: 4.5.
MTV is sitting pretty. It has strong ratings in a demographic advertisers are hard-pressed to find elsewhere. Moreover, several of its new shows, like “My Super Sweet 16,” have generated some of the network’s best ratings.
Still, MTV faces minor challenges as it meets with media buyers this upfront. Its current lineup is heavy on female-targeted programs, tipping its typically even balance of male and female viewers. And media buyers say because the network is constantly burning through programs there’s often an uneasy sense that the next step MTV takes will be the one that trips it up.
Kevin Downey – 2005
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2005/mar05/mar28/1_mon/news3monday.html
Although this information is relatively out of date it details its popularity. The increase in access to the channel and its multiplatform approach (magazines and websites) suggest this popularity is growing. This article has shown that we were right to target the same audience as MTV due to its known respected name and therefore its demand within the industry. Our next assumption was that The Fray (the band whose song we are creating a video for) target the same audience as of MTV. We then chose to research into The Fray’s audience demographic, we did this by contacting Epic Records (the label The Fray are signed to) via email. Unfortunately, even after many attempts and a lot of pestering, Epic Records did not respond. We then decided that the most crucial feature of The Fray's audience demographic was their age, so we asked 10 people from every age group whether they listened to The Fray. From this we worked out an average of those who do listen from each age group, the results were as follows.
| Age | Listen to The Fray | Don’t Listen to The Fray | Average That Listen to The Fray |
| <> | 5 | 5 | 50% |
| 17-26 | 8 | 2 | 80% |
| 27-36 | 4 | 6 | 40% |
| 37-47 | 1 | 9 | 10% |
| > 47 | 1 | 9 | 10% |
This table proves that The Fray have the same target audience as MTV. This means that our initial prediction was correct. We will target this audience by using many of the same conventions used by professional videos shown on the channel.
Furthermore, we have used characters that are of the same age as the audience. This allows the viewers to easily relate to the characters and so the plot, fulfilling an audience pleasure.
We have also used a stereotypically male bedroom, shown in the mise-en-scene. Empty beer cans, an unmade bed, a laptop and stereo are all indicators of the personality of the male character. These are obvious links that allow the audience to read the text with ease, meaning the audience can watch as a pass time, with relaxation and entertainment as their purpose, while still relating to and understanding the characters.
