• by Wayne Friedman , August 25, 2006

A day after Nielsen Media Research said the overall U.S. TV household population will increase by just over 1 percent for the upcoming TV season, it announced that Hispanic and Asian households will grow three times as fast.

Nielsen estimates that Hispanic and Asian TV homes will both climb 3.6 percent--11.63 million Hispanic TV homes and 4.37 million Asian TV homes are projected for the 2006-2007 TV season. Overall, Nielsen said U.S. TV homes will grow by 1.1 percent to 111.4 million.

Nielsen says it is the first time the company has released information about Asian demographics.

In addition, Nielsen said African-American TV homes rose at about the same rate as the U.S. TV household population as a whole--1.3 percent to 13.45 million.