Post-Katrina Figures from Nielsen

Figures out this week from Nielsen Media Research show changes in the US TV audience including an overall rise in television households of 1.1% and a 16% decrease in the number in the New Orleans area.

Migration to the Southern and Western regions of the U.S. also produced notable changes in the figures.

The total number of television households within the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) will reach 111.4m by January 1, 2007 according to estimates to be used for the entire 2006-2007 television season. The firm's national Universe Estimates suggest that the number of viewers aged 2+ increased by 1.1% to 283.5 million, reflecting the continued growth of the baby boomers generation, which will reach ages 43 to 61 in 2007. One of the fastest growing demographic categories was persons age 55-64, which increased by 3.9%. Echo Boomers/Generation Y (teens and 20's) also experienced strong growth, with persons 18-24 increasing by 2.0%.

Continuing the trend from recent years, more than half of the 60 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) that moved up in rank are in the Southern and Western regions of the United States. This ties in with population migrations revealed in the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent annual population estimates, which indicated that from 2004 to 2005, the top 10 fastest growing states were in the South or the West.

Among the more notable increases, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose moved up to 5th and Dallas-Ft. Worth to 6th; Phoenix moves up one more spot to 13th and Las Vegas moves up five spots to 43rd. A full listing can be found via the NMR web site at www.nielsenmedia.com . Ethnic demographics, including estimates on African American, Latino and Asian television populations, will be released soon.

Nielsen's 2006-2007 Universe Estimates are based on Claritas projections that have been adjusted to reflect the demographic impacts of the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes. As a consequence, the New Orleans DMA is now estimated to contain 566,980 television households, down from 672,150 last year. New Orleans is now ranked as the 54th largest DMA, down from 43rd last year. In the absence of sufficiently up-to-date traditional demographic sources, Claritas used alternative sources for this including information from local demographers, the Red Cross, and FEMA. Additional information is available on the Claritas web site at www.claritas.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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