Pew: Spanish Media May Compete For Latino Youth

New research shows potentially mixed results for Spanish-language media. Nearly one-fifth of all young people ages 16 to 25 in the U.S. are Hispanic, suggesting a growing potential audience.

But at the same time, two-thirds of the group are native-born, and 98% speak English well or very well. Although they may speak Spanish at home, they could increasingly gravitate to general-market media as they move out.

Data from the Pew Hispanic Center shows 18% of all 16- to-25-year-olds in the U.S. are Hispanic -- with much larger percentages in California and Texas. Forty-two percent of all young people in that age range in California are Hispanic, and 40% in Texas.

The Pew Center estimates that 22% of Hispanics 16 to 25 are unauthorized immigrants.

Looking to the future, one in four of all newborns in the U.S. are now Hispanic.

The research shows that 60% of the 16-to-25 Hispanic set are encouraged by parents to speak only Spanish, versus 22% for English.

The research comes from a Pew survey conducted from Aug. 5 to Sept. 16 of more than 2,000 Hispanics 16 and older, with an over-sample of 1,240 ages 16 to 25. The survey was done in English and Spanish via traditional phones and mobile ones.

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Spanish-language media may have benefited from so many 16- to-25 year-olds being Hispanic this year. Nielsen data shows that during the first nine months of '09, ad spending on Spanish-language TV -- cable and network together -- fell a scant .7%.

But the Univision and Telemundo networks may have suffered more, with data showing a 4.6% fall in network TV.

Local TV has been suffering, and that's also the case in the Spanish-language market. TNS Media Intelligence data shows a 10.4% drop in combined ad dollars for four broadcast networks, four cable channels and 71 local stations in the first nine months of 2009.

In line with the general market, Spanish-language print ad revenues were deeply affected. Magazines were down 25%, according to TNS, and newspapers fell 18%.

Other states where Hispanics make up a large portion of the population ages 16 to 25 include New Mexico (51%), Arizona (36%), Nevada (31%) and Florida and Colorado (24% each).

The Pew report showed that 75% of U.S.-born Hispanic youths expect to be better off financially than their parents.

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