WATCH out MTV, teens want their Adult Swim.
Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block – a collection of cartoon shows for grownups that airs after 11 p.m. – is drawing more teen viewers than MTV, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Adult Swim – which features some of cable’s hottest shows, including reruns of “Family Guy” and the original “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” – draws nearly twice as many teens as MTV.
It is a startling statistic that perhaps says more about how late kids stay up these days – but Cartoon Network is trumpeting its new-found success at full volume.
“MTV, I think, is overmarketed to what seems to be an anti-marketing generation,” says Keith Crawford, of Adult Swim. “We’re totally different from what they’re offering.”
The competition between the two networks is fierce, but MTV is not really shaking in its boots. MTV is on 24 hours a day, while Adult Swim is only on seven hours.
“It’s apples to oranges,” says Betsy Frank, of Viacom’s Cable Networks.
“It’s surprising that in that seven hours a night, they deliver a lot of teens,” Frank says. But overall, MTV remains a much bigger network.
Earlier this month, Nielsen began rating Adult Swim separately from its parent network – much like Nick at Nite is rated separately from Nickelodeon, even though both are on the same channel. It is part of the trend among cable stations to appeal to ever more specialized audiences.
TEEN TITAN
Among the coveted teen audience, Adult Swim beat MTV in April 2005.
Adult Swim: 318,000 daily average
MTV: 179,000 daily average