The Very Rich Are Different From You and Me, TV Edition
There are so many reasons we're not good enough for the Hamptons. We have too many pounds and not enough dollars. Our jeans are merely Levi's; our sunglasses are purchased on the street. We hate to pay more than $5 for a beer. We do not use summer as a verb. We grew up — and this may be the worst part — going to the Jersey Shore. We know these things, we've always known them, and we're OK with it.
But while you could question our beachworthiness, we've never doubted our TV-watching status. We're elite viewers, we've always thought: We've got digital cable, we've got TiVo, we watch high-demo networks like HBO and IFC and, every now and then, even a little PBS. So imagine our surprise to learn in this week's Newsweek that there's a television network — Plum, it's called — we're not good enough for.
The network's market research shows an average Plum viewer earns $218,000 annually with household assets of $2.5 million. With advertisers like Sensient Jets, a private jet company, and the investment firm of Friedman Billings Ramsey, Plum serves a unique function: local programming for the global elite.
Of course, it's not available on Time Warner here in New York. The only nearby place in which you can get it is, natch, the Hamptons.
