• by David Kaplan , April 26, 2005

When it comes to households that are more likely to be either watching kids' programming or taking advantage of all the various services offered by cable and cell phone providers, African-Americans and Hispanics are in the lead, according to data from marketing consultancy Scarborough Research.

In general, African-Americans and Hispanics are more likely to be watching TV in all its various dayparts than the general population at large, noted Cheryl Greenblatt, senior vice president of television sales for Scarborough.

And while unemployment and poverty are suffered more disproportionately than the rest of the population, Scarborough notes that when it comes to buying luxury cars - and planning to buy within the next year - those two groups also outpace the general population.

Specifically, blacks are 62 percent more likely to buy a full-size car and 59 percent more likely to buy a luxury car when compared to the total population.

And when it comes to wireless and cell phone bills, African-Americans and Hispanics were 30 and 33 percent, respectively more likely to have monthly bills of $150 or more. They are also close when it comes to digital video recorders.

"The numbers for DVR penetration are pretty close among African-Americans and Hispanics, in terms of ownership and planned to buy," Greenblatt said. "However, when you look at the type of cable service those households have, it's African-Americans who take more advantage of the different types of services available - pay per view, digital cable, premium channels. I think that makes perfect sense because they are avid viewers and therefore want the most out of their TV experience."

In terms of viewing habits, Hispanics are 70 percent more likely to watch kids programming, while African-Americans are 36 percent more likely to watch kids shows. Certain types of reality programming also have greater appeal to both African-Amercians and Hispanics. Specifically, blacks and Hispanics are 15 and 19 percent more likely to watch reality dating shows. Science fiction also has a greater pull, with 22 percent of African-Americans and 9 percent of Hispanics favoring that genre over the general population.

"I don't think we can answer the question as to why they watch more, we can only say that they do," Greenblatt said. "But I think it's important that advertisers for luxury and full-size cars and cable and cell phone providers focus in on those customers for their television buys, and see what kind of shows they're watching. For example, African-Americans are 70 percent more likely than the general population to watch soap operas. They're 25 percent more likely to watch game shows. These are the types of connections advertisers should want to make. You can get the data for the kinds of programming they watch and tie that together."