Honor Without Profit

In the Nielsen-ratings race so far this season, the perennial leader, CBS, is clobbering the competition again. Among TV's top 20 programs, CBS claims 14, including Andy Griffith (No. 1), Lucy (2), Gomer Pyle (5), Red Skelton (6) and Ed Sullivan (10). Moreover, CBS claims an average prime-time audience that is 11% bigger than NBC's and a record 25% ahead of third-place ABC. Yet standing as No. 1 can be an honor without profit in TV country. CBS's earnings fell 43% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, and, according to the October tabulation of commercial-time sales, is lagging behind its 1966 record, while ABC and NBC are running ahead of theirs.

One of CBS's major problems is that many TV sponsors today care more about the composition of a show's audience than its overall total. The ratings strength of CBS is in its older shows. But those programs attract proportionately more elderly, lower-income audiences from rural and semirural areas--audiences that, obviously, are the least tempting to most advertisers. T hese viewers not only have less cash to spend but are also less likely to try new products. And at a time when corporations are tightening their advertising budgets, many sponsors are seeking the same kind of "selective" audiences that they look for in magazines.

Right Price. The fact that Ed Sullivan outdraws NBC's Dean Martin 28.4 million to 24.9 million may not be the decisive determinant for many prospective sponsors. For an advertiser of color-television sets or rent-a-cars, for example, the pivotally important fact is that Sullivan pulls only 16.3% of the TV families earning more than $10.000 a year, while NBC's Dean Martin attracts 23.4% in that bracket. Not surprisingly, then, Zenith and Hertz buy time on Martin while, in the main, mass-consumption products such as Nabisco crackers, Wesson oil and Hunt's tomato paste are pushed on Sullivan.

Sponsors also, of course, want not only the right audience but the right price. Take an item like Geritol. ABC's Lawrence Welk Show happens to be running 31st in the cumulative Nielsens, but demographic studies show that Welk is No. 1 for viewers who are 50 years and over. CBS's higher-rated Lucy pulls almost as many of the 50-plus folks and delivers a vast extra audience as well--but one that is not a likely market for Geritol. Geritol obviously gets more for its money paying about $3.40 for every 1,000 viewers over 50 who watch Welk than by putting out $4.60 for each 1,000 in the same age group watching Lucy. Similarly, ABC's Batman is a bargain for an advertiser who wants to reach kids two to five. It is No. 1 with them in prime time, though in total audience the program ranks 56th (among Batman's sponsors: Cheerios. Milton Bradley games).

Top Numbers. According to CBS Research Director Jay Eliasberg, the network feels that "intelligent advertisers are not interested in demographics perse but in the audience's response to their product," since most TV advertising is of mass-consumption items. Besides, adds Eliasberg, CBS's huge prime-time audience contains top numbers in all categories--more young people, more old people, more women, more men, more teenagers, more children.

Nevertheless, the trend seems to be toward more demographic analysis and away from numbers alone. Apart from that, sponsors find CBS a little more expensive than its two rivals. Ratings success is spoiling not only CBS's time sales but also the established stars of the long-running hits behind that success. The headliners hold out for salary boosts that force the network to charge higher prices for those shows than their ratings alone would command. CBS, which bills itself as "The Network of the Stars," gets slightly more than $50,000 per average prime-time minute; NBC asks $46,000 and ABC $43,000. The leading shows cost even more--and it was only recently that CBS managed to sell all its commercial spots on the Skelton and Gleason shows for December. By contrast, top programs on NBC and ABC have been virtually sold out since September.

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