Sunday night, April 6, is the start of season four of the popular series Game of Thrones, a fantasy drama TV show, and also the premiere of the TV show Turn, a Revolutionary War spy drama. One show is premium and well-established content on HBO (Game of Thrones), while the new arrival belongs to cable channel AMC (Turn) – but both will compete for viewers at the 9:00 PM time slot. Here at CivicScience, we were interested to see if the two shows would be warring against each other for the same “live” audience. Sure, the TV shows have different story lines, but they are both dramas around the theme of battles and war.
This past week, we loaded two simple questions into our InsightStore polling platform:
- How likely are you to watch the new Revolutionary War spy drama “Turn” on AMC?
- How likely are you to watch season 4 of Game of Thrones?
From more than 10,000 responses, we were able to identify the likely viewers to find some interesting insights in how they compare to each other and the general population.
Demographics:
Each show’s likely viewer pulls from very similar demographic groups.
- AMC’s Turn seems to be of more interest to males, in the GenX age group, who are highly-educated, have high incomes (24% of respondents report $100k+ incomes), and with a larger viewing rate in the US Northeast.
- In comparison, HBO’s Game of Thrones likely viewers also includes more males, but they’re more likely to be Millennials. These viewers are also highly-educated, even more are in the higher income bucket (36% report $100k+ incomes), and also have a slightly larger viewing rate in the US Northeast.
Entertainment and Media Consumption:
We found more psychographic and behavioral differences in how these expected viewer segments compared to the general US population.
- Game of Thrones viewers are more likely to watch full TV shows online, more likely to watch dramas, and enjoy reading science fiction and fantasy books.
- On the other hand, the Turn audience is less likely to watch full TV shows online, more likely to enjoy watching documentaries, and more likely to watch local TV news.
Lifestyle:
There were also some lifestyle habits that seem to be different among the two groups. One that stood out is public transportation usage.
- Turn’s likely watchers are less likely (by 60%) than non-watchers to use public transportation.
- Game of Thrones’ likely watchers are more likely (113%) than non-watchers to use public transportation.
We found some other fun nuggets about how they differ from non-watchers and each other, and we’ve included more of that data in a brief Insight Report on our website (get the PDF here, no login needed).
These insights may change as the audiences for both shows potentially grow and evolve, particularly as more viewers decide to consume both shows via on-demand services. Let’s face it – the “live” audience is only part of the story.
Look for us to revisit the data again at the end of the season to learn even more about the viewers of Turn’s Abe Woodhull and his fight for America’s independence vs. those who are hoping Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons will de-throne King Joffrey in Game of Thrones.
