• by Paul Gough , May 2, 2003

For planners and other marketers wanting to reach the sometimes-elusive Gen Y demographic, you've got to understand the new reality. Generation Y's landscape is filled with choice, control, on-demand video, interactivity and the always present digital media.

"This is what's happening in the world around us," said Howard Horowitz, president of the Larchmont, N.Y., company. The study was presented late last week at a New York City conference sponsored by Horowitz Associates.

A new study by the company titled America's Multicultural Youth: The Next Generation, finds that 36% of Americans 12-24 have a cable- or satellite-connected TV in their bedrooms and a quarter have a computer there too. Marketing director Adrianna Waterston said that among today's youth, TV is ubiquitous and always on. Ninety-three percent have more than one TV in the house and four of five have five or more TVs there. Four of five households subscribe to cable or satellite and 69% get premium channels. The survey found that youth watch an average of 3.6 hours of TV a day.

For planners and other marketers wanting to reach this sometimes-elusive demographic, you've got to understand the new reality. Generation Y's landscape is filled with choice, control, on-demand video, interactivity and the always present digital media. "This is what's happening in the world around us," said Howard Horowitz, president of the Larchmont, N.Y., company. The study was presented late last week at a New York City conference sponsored by Horowitz Associates.

The study looked at 600 12-24 year olds, 400 in urban areas and 200 nationwide. While Horowitz acknowledged that some in the media business are wringing their hands about the way things have turned out technologically, he said that's not the case for the 12- to 24-year-olds.

"There's no doubt the consumer sees it as progress and we think the consumers are way ahead of us ... We've got to catch up on the business model," Horowitz said. He said that the media industry shouldn't be too quick to dismiss convergence, the mix between TV and computer screens that is being aided by the emergence of broadband. And he said that PVRs should be embraced as a development that will result in better programming and better success for TV.

On the multicultural front, Waterston said there are 99 million people in the United States who are 24 or under, with almost half of them being nonwhite. "America's multicultural communities skew young," she said. Waterston said that for marketers to hope that they'll tune into the programs being offered "they really need for us to be tuned into them."

Of the most popular channels for youth surveyed, MTV (27%) was the overwhelming favorite, followed by Fox (18%), The WB (13%), Disney (12%) and BET (10%). Cartoon Network, ABC and Nickelodeon were favored by 9% in the survey, NBC and HBO (8%) and ESPN (7%). Fox (25%) and MTV (19%) were the favorite channels for males; MTV (33%) and Disney (16%) were the favorite channels for females.

Among white youth, the favorite channels were: MTV (29%); Fox (17%); Disney (14%); The WB (11%); ABC (10%); and NBC (10%). White youth selected specific channel numbers as their favorite channel in 10% of the cases. Among black youth, the favorite channels were BET (38%); MTV (25%); specific channels (21%); UPN (18%); Fox (13%); Disney (12%) and HBO (12%). Among Asian youth, the favorite channels were: MTV (23%); The WB (22%); specific channels (15%); Disney (13%); Fox (13%); ESPN (10%); and Comedy Central (9%).

The study found that 56% of Hispanic youth said that English is the dominant language in their household, with 42% being Spanish dominant. It's broken out in the study for overall Hispanics and then in households that are Spanish- or English dominant. Among Hispanics, the favorite channels are: Fox (31%); specific channel numbers (29%); MTV (18%); The WB (15%); UPN (12%); BET (10%) and Cartoon Network (10%). In Spanish-dominant households, 45% of the youth marked specific channel numbers as their favorites, followed by Fox (39%), UPN (14%), ABC (13%), The WB (12%), Cartoon Network (12%) and MTV (11%). Among English-dominant Hispanic youth, the favorite channels were Fox (26%); MTV (21%); specific channel numbers (18%); The WB (18%); BET (12%); ESPN (10%) and UPN (10%).