NETWORKS TO FOCUS ON ATTRACTING MALE VIEWERS

In recent years the broadcast networks have been bleeding male viewers the way they have viewers in general on Saturday nights (and to a somewhat lesser extent on Friday nights). Combine that with the growing attraction of cable-TV shows and the incursion of online video and the result is reflected in an 8-percent drop in the audience for broadcast TV last season. According to Advertising Age, virtually all of the major networks will be introducing programs in the fall season aimed at reclaiming male viewers. “Networks realize that in order to grow they need to bring in men,” Sam Armando, senior VP-director of strategic intelligence at Publicis Groupe’s SMGx, told the magazine. The only problem, according to Armando: “I can’t recall a [non-sports] broadcast show that was hugely successful that skewed highly male.”