To Cut the Cord or Not Cut the Cord
We all prefer the big, simple idea. But when it comes to audience demographics the world is getting much more complicated.
There were 2 charts that caught my eye around demographic planning for campaigns: 1) TV is a house divided between older and younger Americans; and 2) the other divide is between cord and cutting the cord households. 
The TV generation gap is wide. Even though the average consumption rate is nearly 5 hours, there is wide gap between 18-34 (2:17) and 50-64 (6:11). To reach an 18-34 year old on regular TV is going to take massive frequency and would be much more efficient using a digital medium.
The second chart shows why people are NOT cutting cable cord. More than 70% of households have not cut the cable/satellite cord–and have no plans to drop it for the reasons in the chart.
So for now, the traditional pay-tv subscription TV is holding steady, but know if a few more House of Cards programs hit on steaming TV and a few sports events start to gravitate to streaming platforms, the cords may become severed at a very fast rate.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.