RFD-TV's Patrick Gottsch On How Rural Americans Became the Hot "New" Demo

RFDTV recently added to the 12million home Charter system is arguably the fastest growing cable network in 2016 It reaches over 50 million homes across the US in both rural and urban markets and is measured by Nielsen The network offers five hours of news programming a day combined with entertainment programming spanning rural tastes like music rodeosamp160and country western sports programmingGottsch pictured at top who grew up on a farm believes thatamp160quotthere is a real disconnect and a growing disconnect between urban and rural America over the last couple of decades It is frustrating that programming for rural America is all programming with an urban perspective We have got to get people thinking differently about rural AmericaquotAlthough America39s farms contributed over 177 billion to the US economy in 2014 some advertisers and MVPDs do not always see the value and strength of rural American audiences and consumers Many like Chevy Nationwide RAM and Polaris do see the value amp160Rural consumers have high median net worth according to MRI 2016 Doublebase with a 122 index 278442 vs Total US 227551 and have a higher median earned income 41101 than the Total US 38920 in the same study Ignoring this audience is a big mistake as Gottsch explains in this exclusive interviewCharlene Weisler How do you see the role of RFDTV in a channel lineupPatrick Gottsch We try to do our part by offering a TV channel that focuses on rural interests that are distributed into the cities We are on Dish network and DirectTV Charter ATampampT uVerse Mediacom and others and we are accomplishing that goal We are a business channel for rural America in the morning but instead of focusing on the stock markets like CNBC Bloomberg and Fox we are focused on the commodity market out of Chicago We have primetime news programming but it is the rural evening news It is not the farm news we have a bureau in Washington DC that works on the Hill and works with different agencies with the USDA We cover stories dealing with rural education rural healthcare rural development and of course agriculture We actually have a larger audience in the city than in the country They see this as unique programming Unfortunately the only time that rural news is covered by outlets such as Fox or CNN is when there is a disaster There are 27 million homes outside of A and B counties and 57 million people living in rural America Many of the major associations have programs on our air Corn Wheatamp160and Beef We are the only network serving rural America and their unique interests and lifestylesCharlene What are some of the larger issues that need to be covered for rural viewers to connect them to urban AmericaPatrick We were frustrated by the Presidential debates no questions were asked about rural Americaamp160We hosted a series of Rural Town Halls and the series just won the CableFax Award for Public Affairs programming One of the biggest issues now is that farmers are getting old their average age is 62 and everyone is concerned about passing on the farm to the next generation The big question is the death tax How can the land be passed on to the next generation to produce the food that the folks in the city need Rural healthcare is just as important as it is from an urban perspective Rural development is also important many of our small towns are losing businesses Nobody is paying attention to rural America and doing things to develop reasons for our sons and daughters to remain in small townsCharlene It is a bit ironic that our Presidentelect who captured much of the rural vote is a native New Yorker who grew up and lives in the cityPatrick Donald Trump could have run as a Republican or a Democrat It didn39t matter It was his independence He seems to have strengthened people amp160They want change and he basically said quotWhat do you have to losequot I think that resonated The commodity markets this summer are at their lowest point that they have been in ten years Everything in rural America revolves around commodity pricesCharlene How are you getting more distributionPatrick It is a challenge This past February we were dropped by FIOS whichamp160also dropped the Outdoor Sportsman and Weather channels They are dumping rural networks Comcast dropped us and when they announced their merger with Time Warner I testified on Capitol Hill We run up against this all the time But now we will be reaching many new and larger urban markets thanks to Charter whichamp160will be rolling us out in markets like New York City Los Angeles Raleighamp160and Cleveland in DecemberCharlene Do you have digital OTT strategiesPatrick amp160Yes We have a Country Club that we stream on VOD and on Roku Our disadvantage is that the speed of broadband is not as good in rural areas and our demo is older They don39t want to watch on handhelds they want to watch on their big screen TVs We have a deal with Adobe to enable authentication and we are working with our cable and satellite affiliates to offer TV Everywhere availabilityamp160 Some distributorsamp160like ATampampT already have that option enabled so viewers with RFDTV in their package can watch us anywhereamp160 We are also working to expand overthetop options like Amazon YouTube and Roku for viewers that want to supplement their current pay TV packages or sample our contentCharlene What is your message to advertisersPatrick We are a family owned business and have a good cash flow We know that consumers want rural programming amp160there were over 200000 published comments during the ComcastTime Warner merger discussions at the FCC to please protect rural America We tell advertisers that we are beating CNN and MSNBC in Nielsen ratings and in MRI among all networks in reaching Middle America We have a very loyal audience Many of our viewers have farms that have been in their family for generations It is a different lifestyle They have different values amp160They have different needs RFDTV is very important to rural America So we will stay the course whether advertisers come or not amp160Our viewers are heavy users of a variety of household itemsamp160and enjoy a range of leisure activitiesamp160 They also own an average of four pickup trucks There are advertisers like RAM and Chevy who do recognize and appreciate the rural consumer But some advertisers think they are reaching this audience through other programming such as football They are not Don39t take this audience for grantedSony Pictures Television is the national ad sales representative for RFDTV Source Nielsen Media Research 2Q16 MF 9a2pamp160with HOH Farmer 18 viewing RFD 016 rating vs CNN 009 and MSNBC 012amp160Sourceamp160GfK MRI 2016 Doublebase A18 RDFTV is ranked No 1 in Middle America OH IN IL MI WI IA MN MO ND SD NE KS with an index of 162 WGN America is No 2 at 154 index No 1 in B Camp160or D counties index at 152 with No 2 INSP at 140Click the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends 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RFD-TV's Patrick Gottsch On How Rural Americans Became the Hot "New" Demo

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Charlene Weisler

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