TV viewers hit 50!

That's the median age of folks watching network TV in real time, according to a study by the media buying firm Magna Global (it's part of the Interpublic empire). Factoring in DVR viewing, the median does drop, but only to 49. CBS skews the oldest, at 54, while the CW has the youngest viewers, at 34. These are pretty amazing numbers for an industry that relies almost exclusively on the 18-49 demographic (the big exceptions being news programs). I haven’t seen the study itself, so beware of possible caveats – and don’t forget that watching “Grey’s Anatomy” on an iPod still constitutes TV viewing. But the overall thrust seems intuitively correct – that network real-time viewing is becoming an old-fart activity. "Young people live in a multi-screen world, and network TV is increasingly getting left behind," writes Michael Learmonth in Silicon Alley Insider (he got it from a Broadcasting & Cable item).

CBS: 54
ABC: 50
NBC: 49
Fox: 44
The CW: 34

For some reason, Univision isn't a part of the mix, but Magna estimates that its median is only 34.