Nearly 80% of minorities regularly watch online videos, compared with less than 70% of Caucasians (Pew Internet & American Life Project). Further research from Nielsen reported on the degree of online video consumption across African-American, Asian, Hispanic and Caucasian consumers in the U.S. Turns out Caucasians consumed less than four hours of online video per month, while Asians watched 11 hours, Hispanics watched 7 hours and AA watched up to 6 hours per month, respectively. Though Nielsen’s numbers addressed mainly PC based viewing, it is unlikely consumption through connected devices would skew the numbers differently as we know from a host of other syndicated reports that Ethnic groups are tech savvy, early adopters, highly social and outpace the General Market population in all things digital (time spent with social media, music streaming, video streaming) and mobile (# of texts, # of mobile calls, # of music/photo/video downloads).
What are they consuming? “Are you not entertained?!?!”
Hands down, MC targets have a high affinity for consuming entertainment content online (lifestyle, comedy, music video, sports, fashion, beauty, food, how-to tutorials and much more). On YouTube, minorities are capturing the larger share of audiences, a marked contrast to the most popular shows on mainstream television, where most of the stars are largely Caucasians. Among the 20 most-subscribed-to-channels on YouTube, eight feature minorities (most are Asian American, many more Black and Latino shows populate the top 50). These minority-produced, home-grown videos are drawing massive audiences (the top one on YouTube has 5.2MM subscribers) and rightfully so as these overlooked segments are hungry for content that speaks in their voice, in their culture and showcases what motivates and entertains them most. Networks play it safe by appealing to broader audiences, not accurately reflecting the new U.S. Mainstream and leaving an opening for Minorities to take content consumption & creation into their own hands.
Hispanics and Online Video: “Living La Vida Digital”
Hispanic online video consumption is being led by its Millennials who are young, supremely social, digitally connected and dominating smart phone and tablet growth in the U.S. New platform creators are quickly taking notice as Latino usage gains momentum. YouTube currently has 15 networks (and growing) focused solely on Latino lifestyle content (check out http://www.youtube.com/user/mitu for a preview of the type of content shaping preferences today.) Terra.com and QuePasa.com announced a video distribution partnership in 2011, whereby Terra TV content would be incorporated into Quepasa’s video platform to offer consumers News, Sports, and Entertainment exclusive to Terra.com. NBCU/Telemundo are investing in the