It's No Longer the Media Community You Know
By: Michael Steele, President and CEO
Advantage Communications, Inc.
Is America "unplugging?"
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard chatter about the "Death of Cable."* Much of this has been fueled by the proliferation of new media tools. According to a recent interactive poll conducted by Adweek/Harris, approximately 51% of Americans would stop paying for cable TV and watch all their programming on the Internet if they could get all the shows they wanted free. In direct contrast were the 34% of Americans that had no interest in giving up their cable TV – interesting, but not surprising that those who preferred to stay plugged-in skewed older. (source: Adweek/Harris Interactive, May 2011).
According to a 2011 analysis from the Associated Press, eight of the nine largest subscription-TV providers in the U.S. lost 195,700 subscribers in the April-to-June quarter. The analysis, featured in an article entitled Pay TV Industry Loses Record Number of Subscribers, noted, "…But it is also possible that people are cancelling cable, or never signing up in the first place, because they’re watching cheap internet video."
With this said, we must dissect the implications of such a transition on the overall broadcast media community and also on that of the ethnic media and consumer market. As multicultural experts at Advantage Communications, Inc., we have been tracking along with this phenomenon and our findings are consistent with projections of many consumer analysts.
As recently as 30 years ago, network TV included three (3) major networks that could reach almost 90% of the U.S. population. Now, however, consumers have hundreds of cable channel choices, making it more challenging for marketers to reach them. On top of this, additional forms of interactive media and entertainment have captured the attention of the once loyal broadcast customer, some of which include:
- Netflix
- HuLu
- Google or Apple TV
- HBO GO
- YouTube (with the aid of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
This overwhelming interest in new media has been attributed to many factors. However, the reigning factor seems to tie back to our weakening economy and proliferation of new media. In many households, cable TV is considered a "luxury" item. When budget-cutting consumers consider alternative options to cable, those available via the Internet are quite attractive for reasons ranging from cost efficiency to ease of accessibility.
*For the purpose of this article, satellite providers such as DirecTV and Dish Network are considered as cable.
Cable customers appear to be "unplugging" at unprecedented rates, challenging forward-thinking marketers to redefine our media community as we know it. Cable customers appear to be "unplugging" at unprecedented rates, challenging forward-thinking marketers to redefine our media community as we know it.
So what does this mean for the multicultural segments? The minority consumer market disproportionately consumes broadcast media – we know this as a fact. For those of you who may not know, according to Nielsen Media Research in the 2005 report, "TV Audience Special Study: African American Audience", television use in African-American households far out-paced viewing in all other homes. It noted that African American homes tuned into 40% more television than other households and our Hispanic counterparts are not far behind.
With this understanding, further elaboration on the impact of the minority population disengaging from cable television paints the picture of the ensuing paradigm shift.
According to Ebony writer Adrienne P. Samuels in an October 2008 article entitled TV With Out TV: As Black Shows Shift Online, Viewers Can Tune Into the Web To Find Color, she says:
"You can still find the occasional Black character on cable channels such as TV One or BET, or run across an African-American on a reality series, or on the Food Network or HGTV. And the CW network offers two Black shows this fall. But a growing number of Blacks are headed to the online frontier, where Web-based episodic programming (aka Internet TV) is fast becoming popular--and even faster becoming a moneymaker… In June, YouTube (the largest video site online) had 8.3-million African-American viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research."
This new media consumption behavior is not only visible within the African American community but the Hispanic as well.
A study was recently conducted by the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication, with the support of DMS Research, from a national online sample of nearly 2,500 Hispanics who prefer English; Hispanics who prefer Spanish; non-Hispanic whites; African-Americans and Asians in the United States.
Key findings from this study uncovered broad diversity in social media behaviors among different ethnic/cultural groups and that minorities visit social networking sites more frequently than non-Hispanic whites. In general, the study concluded that ethnic minorities visit social networking sites more frequently than non-Hispanic whites.
While these are only two examples of minority segment preference of new media tools, growing consumer trends continue to demonstrate the prevalence of these tools against this population.
At Advantage Communications, Inc. we’ve taken this information and our learnings about the new media tools and translated them into action for our clients. We’ve embraced the fact that cable TV will more than likely be around for years to come but it is no longer what it used to be for reaching our multicultural segments. We’ve immersed ourselves in the social media arena leveraging tools such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Blogs, LinkedIn and more to speak to targeted consumers. We are approaching the digital divide with our guns loaded – or better stated - our smart phones hot!
So what do you think will happen when the heaviest users of broadcast media unplug? Or better yet, are YOU ready?This new media consumption behavior is not only visible within the African American community but the Hispanic as well.
A study was recently conducted by the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication, with the support of DMS Research, from a national online sample of nearly 2,500 Hispanics who prefer English; Hispanics who prefer Spanish; non-Hispanic whites; African-Americans and Asians in the United States.
Key findings from this study uncovered broad diversity in social media behaviors among different ethnic/cultural groups and that minorities visit social networking sites more frequently than non-Hispanic whites. In general, the study concluded that ethnic minorities visit social networking sites more frequently than non-Hispanic whites.
While these are only two examples of minority segment preference of new media tools, growing consumer trends continue to demonstrate the prevalence of these tools against this population.
At Advantage Communications, Inc. we’ve taken this information and our learnings about the new media tools and translated them into action for our clients. We’ve embraced the fact that cable TV will more than likely be around for years to come but it is no longer what it used to be for reaching our multicultural segments. We’ve immersed ourselves in the social media arena leveraging tools such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Blogs, LinkedIn and more to speak to targeted consumers. We are approaching the digital divide with our guns loaded – or better stated - our smart phones hot!
So what do you think will happen when the heaviest users of broadcast media unplug? Or better yet, are YOU ready?
