It’s the beginning of a presidential election year, which typically brings heightened interest in current events and news coverage. And while certain news networks appeal to distinct audiences, are those viewers truly different in anything beyond their political allegiances? In other words, what’s in their shopping carts each week? TiVo Research examined the top 20 indexing product categories for viewers of Fox News Channel and MSNBC in primetime. The lists were more different than similar: Nine of the product categories were the same (indicated in bold in the charts below), and 11 were unique to each list.
Fox News Channel
Category Index
Furniture polish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Hairspray/spritz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Cosmetics, lips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
External analgesic rubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
Bleach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129
Paper napkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Vitamins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Weight control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Frozen desserts, toppings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Wines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Coffee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Facial tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Hair coloring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Jellies/jams/honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Paper towels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Sugar substitutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Baked beans and brown bread . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115
Eye, contact lens care products . . . . . . . . . 115
Mayonnaise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Household cleaners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
MSNBC
Product Index
Pasta (refrigerated) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Mouthwash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Cat litter, dog supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Cough syrup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Wines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Hair coloring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
External analgesic rubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Weight control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Cat food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113
Cosmetics, lips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Sugar substitutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Foils and wraps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Hand and body lotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Paper towels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Frozen dinners, entrees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Frozen meat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Ice cream, sherbert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Bleach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105
Eye, contact lens care products . . . . . . . .105
Dish detergent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
SOURCE: TiVo Research. Based on primetime network ratings for third-quarter 2015. Heavy purchasing households are defined as the top 25% of the purchasing households for the specified category, based on total dollar expenditure per household. Indices are calculated by dividing the primetime rating for heavy brand purchasers for the specified network by the overall network primetime rating.
