Us And Them: How TV’s Dichotomy Reflects America’s

A recurring theme for the past decade has been the dichotomy that exists in America between the Ten Percent, the upper middles class on the coasts. and the rest of the country. It’s a split that encompasses both economics and the logistics of everyday life.

That division is playing out in television as well, as there seem to be two distinct ecosystems of shows. There is the world that most people see, network hits like “Blackish,” “Modern Family,” “Dancing With The Stars” and “Empire.” And then there are the streaming/premium hits, shows like “Transparent” “Narcos” “Stranger Things” and “Westworld,” shows that the Ten Percent sees, the ones that receive the bulk of the love from recappers and reviewers and seem to win most of the awards.

What’s interesting is the complete disparity between the two worlds, down to the ways in which they are watched and monetized.

Ten Percenter shows are almost always watched on demand, frequently binge watched and thus have some very long tails—it may be months before sizable chunks of the eventual audience gets around to watching them.

They mostly run on subscription networks and thus without commercials. That’s important because it affects the way the shows are filmed—there’s no fade to black for the commercial break and that creates a much move filmic sensibility to these shows, almost all of which are designed to be watched in sequential order—even comedies like “Mozart In The Jungle” don’t make sense if you watch them out of order.

Compare those shows with what’s on network TV, where scripts need to be able to handle viewers who tune in mid-show or mid-season. So while you can indeed tune into “The Big Bang Theory” at any point and understand what’s going on, it feels like it’s almost a different medium than what’s on Netflix or HBO or Showtime.

That difference has not been lost on the Emmys, the Golden Globes and other august bodies that award television shows. In recent years, the Ten Percenter shows have been sweeping the awards, much to the chagrin of broadcast network executives who openly wonder whether a show that attracts less than a million viewers can be judged alongside one that attracts ten million.

Monetization is also different. Because most of the Ten Percenter networks are subscription-only (FX, AMC and USA being the exceptions) there’s often no ad revenue to worry about. That means the shows need to create buzz to attract subscribers. And given that the people with the cash to spend anywhere from $7 to $15/month for an additional TV service are likely to be Ten Percenters, then it makes sense to tailor shows to them, to the sort of sensibility that flocks to UK hits like “Peaky Blinders” and “Black Mirror” rather than the lowest common denominator mentality that pervades U.S. network TV.

Netflix has been trying to buck that trend, introducing more mass market programming like “Fuller House” and “The Ranch” but those are not the kinds of series that attract more subscribers.

So what’s the ultimate takeaway?

The easy takeaway is that upscale consumers will be harder to reach via traditional TV broadcasts, so you’ll have to get them during the news, sports and event shows they do watch. We’re talking about a specific type of upscale consumer too—not everyone with an income of $250K is watching “Orange Is The New Black” instead of “Blackish.”

The other takeaway is that Ten Percenters are developing a language of cultural touchpoints that are distinctly different than those of the other 90%. Gone are the days when everybody hung out at the Friends coffee shop or Seinfeld’s diner. Marketers who want to connect with upscale viewers need to understand which references they will and won’t get—one downside to the fragmentation of media (and society in general.)

Networks who want to reach this audience need only emulate FX and USA, who, despite having actual commercials on their shows, have also pulled in Ten Percenters with well-written, beautifully shot shows like “The Americans” and “Mr. Robot.”

 Are we ultimately heading for a world that looks a lot like the second episode of Ten Percenter favorite “Black Mirror” where the affluent pay to avoid interruptive advertising? That’s not beyond the realm of possible and in many ways we’re almost there today.

 Making the case for branded content an even stronger one.

TV[R]EV is written, curated and incubated by the BRaVe Ventures team. Find TV[R]EV on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter to stay up to date on the TV[R]EVOLUTION.