A
link for the entire story. Really, GSN's skew towards the Democrats should be no surprise. Adlink numbers show that GSN and Court TV, the two networks mentioned in the story as the best for the Democrats, skew female, black, lower-income, and non-college-grad. Democratic strategists would tell you that's how their vote leans. (It also explains why the ads on these corporate half-siblings tend to be rather similar.)
Meanwhile, Speedvision and the Golf Channel, mentioned as best for the Republicans, skew male, white, higher-income, and college-grad. Republican strategists would tell you that's how their demos trend.
Of course, there are gazillions of individual exceptions to these demo trends, as people will be quick to point out. (Come to think of it, John Kerry looks like the stereotypical Republican voter.) But political ad buyers are no different than other advertisers. They want the most bang for their buck.
The story sort of mentions the female skew but overlooks all the other demo info, especially what I think are crucial differences in race and income. The story also originates from the NY Times, a strongly Democratic paper. So the Republicans get a little tweaking on the gay-marriage issue. By and large, though, the story is pretty much down-the-middle.
EDIT: This demo stuff gets to be fun. I started rummaging around various networks on Adlink, trying to figure whether they would lean Dem or Repub.
Just about any sports network looks like GOP territory: male, high-income, college grad, managerial. ESPN, Fox Sports, ESPN2, etc.
Another interesting niche for the Repubs is the History Channel, which looks like the Golf Channel minus the, er, golf.
At first glance Bravo might seem good for Repubs. The demos line up pretty much in the GOP direction. But there's a special factor, the network's gay reputation, which could tilt it towards the Dems.
Some of the Dem networks are obvious: Lifetime for the heavy female skew, BET for the overwhelming black skew. In fact, it's hard for me to believe that BET's audience isn't the most heavily Democratic in the entire cable kingdom, despite the Times story. MTV probably leans pretty strongly Dem because of the young skew.
The news channels are interesting. They all show pretty similar demos, but Fox likely gets the Repubs and CNN probably leans Democratic. MSNBC leans towards nobody, its usual audience. (Okay, that's unfair and unkind.)
