According to The Hollywood Reporter, despite the fact that two new gay-themed shows headline its summer programming, the Bravo cable network says it is not intentionally trying to target gay viewers. "Does this mean that Bravo is becoming a gay network? Absolutely not," said Bravo president Jeff Gaspin, "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
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"On the surface (the program block) might seem designed for gay audiences, but it's really not," Gaspin said. "When we discussed our advertising plans for how we are going to promote it, the first group of people we are going to promote it to are women 18-49."
According to the report, after some internal debate at the channel, gay viewers were classified as a secondary priority to female viewers, who will command three-quarters of the marketing budget allotted for "Queer" and "Boy," according to Vivi Zigler, senior vp marketing and advertising services at the NBC Agency. "Gay men are not measured by Nielsen (Media Research)," she said. "Women 18-49 is a more salable demo." "Women, as a broader target, are not as easy to convince to see these programs," she said. "Communication in the gay community is such that they would find their way to these shows quickly."
Ah, there they go talking about that legendary gay grapevine again...