Nice to see this good news for the public TV sector, as reported in Philanthropy Journal.
DMW Direct Fundraising reports an upswing for the 73 stations on which it has data over the 2005-2009 period. Revenue per 1000 pieces mailed was up to $295, and average gifts were $42. The public TV market bottomed in 2006.
Upward trends were driven by persistent use of direct mail. Online income would be in addition — the gravy — to the income reported here.
That’s the good news.
Is there a "gray" cloud?
These mail-driven results might suggest the age profile of public TV supporters is on the old — and aging — side. We’d love to hear of some evidence that the donor base for public TV is holding up as Boomers come to the fore.
That should be the case, if loyalty means anything. Most of us Boomers — and our kids — had tons of exposure to public TV in the days before cable brought competition in the form of Discovery and Nat Geo … and for our kids, Nickelodeon, Disney etc.
Any Agitator readers seeing data on the age profile of public TV donors?
Tom
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You can always peruse the public broadcasting industry website http://www.current.org — to see if they’ve published any audience data recently.
Public TV stations are not homogenous; that is, the audience base (potential donor base) of a station in a major metropolitan area might be different than the audience base of a statewide public TV network. As well, the programming of individual stations will vary from market to market because they are not just all getting the same shows from PBS — they’re also producing their own local programs (if they can afford to) and shopping a la carte from other sources.
I suspect that a great number of public TV viewers are not donors, nor are their families, and those families will probably never become part of the PTV donor base. That’s because the viewers are between the ages of 2 and 11 and a good percentage of those come from low-income families where English is not the primary language. Watching public TV kids’ shows has been traditionally viewed as a good way for kids (and adults) to learn English.
There was nothing in our research to suggest a “gray” cloud exists. The fact that a number of responders choose the online channel to respond suggests the opposite may be true.
Public TV as we know it is now more than 40 years old. And from it’s very beginning has been largely supported by a slice of it’s viewing demographic, older folks.
Perhaps that’s because these viewers appreciate that public tv has not abandoned them like most of the rest of the video media world. Boomers are just naturally growing into the new generation of public tv donors and are using both mail and online to communicate their loyalty.