Wealthy Viewers Are Back This Summer. Do They Still Matter?

Wealthy TV viewers: everyone wants them. But what about years from now? Wealthy viewers are often "light" TV viewers who typically are not exposed to specific brands. So marketers will often pay a premium to get access to such viewers. AMC's "Mad Men" gets a big percentage of wealthy viewers for a cable show. But it doesn't get the most affluent cable viewers; higher-rated shows like USA's "Royal Pains" are much better at attracting this coveted demo. Will these wealthy viewers still matter to advertisers when data from set-top boxes come around? Maybe. The question is what actual data will be revealed from set-top boxes. There are privacy issues to consider, for one. Second, the good folks at the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement are not only concerned the data will be tough to get, NBC's research chief Alan Wurtzel (one of the creators of CIMM) has questioned just how valuable the data will be. While we wait, marketers maintain their old ways. This is continued good news for "Mad Men" and all its advertisers.