An Examination of Television Consumption By Racial and Ethnic Audiences in the U.S. Implications for Multicultural Media Planning And Media Measurement J. P. JAMES Academic and practitioner studies have found that television consumption is highest among Salem State University American audiences of diverse races and ethnicities. The validity of ethnic-audience ratings [email protected] measurement in the past has been questionable, predicating diminished multicultural- TYRHA M. LINDSEY- audience valuation. One result has been less spending in the ethnic broadcast-media WARREN Baylor University landscape, which is hampered by media fragmentation. Using an analysis of Horowitz [email protected] Research data, a nationally representative dataset that measures multicultural cable viewership, the authors examined the relationship between television viewership and multiculturalism, mediated by programmatic and media-fragmentation influences and covaried by demographics influences. INTRODUCTION Over the years, there has been controversy over “I encourage ethnic media companies, nation- the fact that television-audience measurement ally respected researchers and demographers to has not kept pace with the increasing diversity of get together and simply break the code of the the United States. Before 1999, the Nielsen Com- Target Rating Point. Properly done, this new sta- pany excluded less culturally assimilated ethnic tistical model can inform strategic media buying minorities from syndicated survey data (D’Rozario decisions, in a fashion that encourages the idea & Yang, 2015). In 2006, Nielsen was criticized for that good business thinking and multicultural surveying too few people of color with its People marketing are not mutually exclusive.” Meters to provide a statistically significant sam- —Jo Muse, The Shaman Chronicles Book One: ple size of ethnic consumers to develop accurate The 7 Senses ofMulticultural Marketing multi cultural television ratings (Napoli, 2005). (2001, pp. 87–88) These audience ratings determine how a marketer’s • Program genres and media fragmentation (through the use of technology) partially mediate the relationship of television viewership and multicultural consumers. • Specific program genres predict higher levels of media fragmentation, as demonstrated by the authors’ “multistep mediation” model, which takes into account viewers’ uses and gratifications (e.g. music programming, live sports) and the technology used for daily viewing. • The media research industry is encouraged to develop a television measurement standard that incorporates the multiculturalism of the audience, the impact of the genre, the use of technology, Submitted 30 March, 2015; and the influence of demographics. revised 31 March, 2017; • Context planning can leverage diverse audiences for multicultural media scheduling. accepted 30 June, 2017 DOI: 10.2501/JAR-2018-027 June 2018 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH 1 AN EXAMINatioN OF TELEVISION CONSUMPTION BY RACIAL AND ETHNIC AUDIENCES IN THE U.S. advertising budget is spent to reach ethnic programming and have suggested using lines: between Whites (who had greater consumers through the planning and buy- a full-attention cost-per-thousand meas- access) and Blacks and other minority ing of media (Rincon, 2012). ure (Bearden, Headen, Klompmaker, and groups (who had less; DiMaggio, Hargit- Asian-Americans, Blacks, and Hispanics Teel, 1981). tai, Celeste, and Shafer, 2004). Ethnic con- combined represent almost $3 trillion of With the ubiquity of digital video sumers are coming to parity in Internet discretionary income and constitute nearly recorders (DVRs) and other, similar tech- access by consuming more digital media 32 percent of the American population nology, an adjusted cost-per-thousand than White audiences through mobile (Humphreys, 2015). Advertisers, however, has been suggested to place a premium technology (Nielsen Company, 2014). expend less than 10 percent of their aggre- on viewers who watch television advertis- As a result, more advertisers are placing gated marketing and advertising budgets ing versus those who skip through com- resources in digital media instead of tel- addressing these ethnic groups (Coffey, mercials (Wilbur, 2008). This phenomenon evision to reach multicultural segments. 2013; Kantar, 2013; La Ferle and Lee, 2005). of media fragmentation has changed for- For example, 60 percent of advertisers In comparison with Blacks and Hispanics, ever the practice of planning, buying, and spend more on new media efforts, such as advertisers have paid far less attention to selling media. In tandem with the media- mobile outreach, specifically to reach eth- Asian-Americans and their commensurate measurement issues, it creates profound nic audiences (Lopez, Gonzalez-Barrera, television platforms; many marketers see challenges for television properties, which and Patten, 2013; Association of National the segment as invisible (Coffey, 2013). now typically deliver less than one-third of Advertisers, 2012). Reliable television-ratings measurement the audiences they did in the past (Nelson- Language choice further magnifies the also is warranted for greater media invest- Field and Riebe, 2011; Rubinson, 2008). The fragmentation issue. Linguistic prefer- ment in the Asian-American segment. The 21st-century marketplace is a customer- ences for television programming among lack of a more representative sample size centric dynamic whereby the consumer Hispanics are split almost evenly among: to estimate audience ratings is holding has control of marketing communications down spending on Asian-American televi- instead of the one-way monologue of the • English only (33.4 percent); sion properties (Coffey, 2013). 20th century (Schultz and Schultz, 1998). • mostly English and some Spanish (31.9 Americans spend 32 minutes a day percent); Media Metrics, Fragmentation, on time-shifted television (70 percent of • mostly Spanish and some English (21.1 And Ethnic Audiences homes have a DVR), an hour per day using percent); Scholars have been working to break the the Internet on a laptop, and more than • Spanish only (12.8 percent) (Ad Age code of overall media measurement for one hour every day using a smartphone Datacenter, 2014). many years (e.g., Cannon, 1984; Cannon, (Nielsen Company, 2014). Thirty-one Leckenby, and Abernethy, 2002; Leckenby percent of video content is not consumed More than half of Asian-Americans are and Boyd, 1984; Leckenby and Ju, 1989; on television; consumers are interacting more comfortable speaking their native Leckenby and Kim, 1994; Leckenby and more with television content on the third tongue, with 24 percent preferring their Kishi, 1984; Leckenby and Rice, 1985). The or fourth screen (Albert and Jacobs, 2008; indigenous language for entertainment and target rating point (TRP) and the related Bondad-Brown, Rice, and Pearce, 2012). In reading (Kaufman-Scarborough, 2000). gross rating point (GRP), reach, and fre- 2018, advertiser spending on digital adver- quency are media metrics the accuracy of tising will overtake television and reach Ethnic-Media Consumption which has been debated in the extant lit- $103 billion, to represent 36 percent of all And Audience Valuation erature. A stream of literature states that advertising spending (Thielman, 2014). Advertisers historically have discrimi- gross rating points are biased in favor of Media fragmentation may be more pro- nated against television platforms and schedules that have maximum reach at nounced among ethnic audiences. It can other media that target African-American minimum levels of frequency, which can be argued that the proliferation of the or Hispanic audiences. Minority television introduce media-vehicle bias into media- Internet through mobile technology has executives contend that advertisers and planning choices (Dickson, 1991; Farris and become a confounding issue in the ethnic- their media agencies discriminate against Parry, 1991). Other scholars have argued media landscape. This is a legacy of the ethnic-media properties by demand- that television rates are inflated because digital divide, whereby online access was ing discounts or generally spending less many viewers are not fully attentive to the divided strongly along racial and ethnic on advertising in these platforms (Ofori, 2 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH June 2018 AN EXAMINatioN OF TELEVISION CONSUMPTION BY RACIAL AND ETHNIC AUDIENCES IN THE U.S. THEARF.ORG 1999). This is evident, given that African- Studies have shown, however, that any product Americans represent approximately 13 or service that is marketed properly to a minority percent of the population, yet fewer than 3 percent of advertising dollars are spent audience can be advantageous, because racial on Black media (Humphreys, 2015; Nielsen Company, 2014; Kantar Media, 2014). His- and ethnic groups tend to be more brand loyal. panics are more than 17 percent of the pop- ulation but represent only 6 percent of the national advertising spend (Humphreys, media properties and content (Adweek, is in broadcast (LaFerle and Lee, 2005), 2015; Kantor Media 2014; Rincon, 2012). 2001). This suggests that some advertisers which suggests that English-language The greatest disparity between the racial and their media agencies may place less television is the best method to reach population and media spending is with the value on or forgo ethnic segmentation. multicultural consumers. The aforemen- Asian-American segment. This segment is Studies have shown, however, that