By Doug Pollack, GM of aiTV Products & Innovation
The Lotame aiTV team has just wrapped a study examining the composition of the Masters Tournament audience across millions of smart TVs. For the analysis, our aiTV platform, which delivers advanced TV audience targeting, was used to profile the tournament’s viewers. Here’s what we found.
Viewership across the board increased
Reports found that CBS’ viewership of the Masters increased considerably year-over-year. And we saw that echoed in our own audience demographic analysis.
According to our aiTV data, the composition of Masters Tournament viewers in 2018 to 2017 varied significantly, with increases among:
· Those aged 35-54 (8% increase YoY)
· Those with a household income (HHI) of $80-100k (24% increase YoY)
· Those with a HHI of $15-50k (3% increase YoY)
· Those with their highest level of education being High School (3 times higher YoY)
· Those with their highest level of education being Undergraduate degree (3% increase YoY)
Why the increase among these groups? It could be the “Tiger Woods Effect.” Tiger made his much-hyped return to the tournament this year, likely drawing more mainstream audiences.
Viewership among avid fans dropped by 14%
Comparing the composition of viewers in 2018 to 2017, there was a decrease among:
· Avid golf fans (14% decrease YoY)
· Those with their highest level of education being Graduate degree (12% decrease YoY)
With an increase in general audiences, avid golf fans fell quite a bit. For advertisers, this is important information to consider. When Tiger is playing, more general audiences will tune-in. For brands very focused on avid fans, this may not have been the best tournament for them. But those simply seeking eyeballs across a number of other demographics were rewarded.
March Madness and Masters Tournament overlap?
Per our data, March Madness viewers accounted for 68% of all Masters viewers in 2017. However, they only accounted for 64% of Masters viewers in 2018.
Clearly, there is a lot of overlap between viewers of both tournaments. Sports fans that watch big sports events tend to watch other big sports events. No surprise there. Though there was a dip in the amount of overlap seen year-over-year. That could be because the 2018 audience was considerably higher across all demographics. A bigger pool of people watching from one year to the next can disrupt things and cut down on overlap.
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