The changing face of the 'American family' and the media it consumes: TV.NXT

At the first ever TV.NXT event organised by afaqs!, an insightful presentation was made by Matt O'Grady, executive vice-president, Media Audience Measurement, Nielsen, who discussed the American marketplace, diversity and demographics and their impact on media consumption and viewing.

O'Grady, who manages Cross Platform Audience Measurement across all three screens -- TV, online and mobile -- pointed out that the US market faces two major demographic trends: an aging population and an explosion in the multicultural population.

Also, with the aging population in the US comes a vacuum in the American workforce. Thus, low population growth and high economic development would send unprecedented numbers of international migrants to the West. Most of these would be young families or couples planning families.

Sharing excerpts from a recent Wall Street Journal article, he provided some estimates of income by ethnicity in the US. Interestingly, the median annual household income of Asians in the US is $65,469; while the whites earn approximately $51,861. The Hispanics' median household income is pegged at $38,309; while African Americans' is $32,584.

Explaining what this means to the world of media and marketers, he said that in the US, marketers now have to redefine what the new American Family looks like. This new American family has many faces and languages.

Many foreign language channels too have been launched in the US, which have considerable audiences within individual markets.

In Nielsen's recent global 'How We Watch - The Global State of Video Consumption' report, the company indexed countries from over the world on their television usage. It was seen that the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries watch a lot of TV; while Europe and the West do not watch as much.

O'Grady also gave the audience a peek into the popular programmes in the US, and how these rank with the Indians there. Six of the top 10 programmes in the Indian list and the US list overlapped. This shows that the Indian population, like many other ethnic immigrant groups, has acculturated or adapted well in the US.

Also, it has been learnt that the US population prefers watching scripted shows, such as Grey's Anatomy, Law & Order and CSI, 10 per cent more than Indians. Conversely, Indians view programmes such as American Idol, The Biggest Loser, and Dancing with the Stars, more than the overall population does. Hispanics and Indians view general dramas significantly less than the total US population.

It was also seen in Nielsen's Global Online Survey in March that Western markets fall behind Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East, when it comes to viewing videos online.

Turning his focus to the Hispanic population in the US, O'Grady said that 18-34 year-old Hispanics watch twice as much of online videos as their non-Hispanic (White) counterparts.

On how to reach this audience, he provided a suggestion, "One of the things we know about programming is that people like to see people who look like them in their shows. This finding applies to the commercials they watch as well." Thus, more ethnic people in shows and commercials would help to grow the market.

Here, he shared the example of how -- while this was not the sole intent -- the comedy TV programme, 'The Bill Cosby Show', was able to garner much attention and eyeballs from the large and growing African-American population.

He summed up by saying that the new consumer marketplace means talking to a more ethnic audience with less disposable income, but whose parents will be more mature. Television needs to change and add more ethnic faces to its content, in both advertising and shows.

Also, the marketing myth of talking only to the young should be broken, because the older population is where the disposable income lies. Moreover, this group is technology savvy as well, so they too can be addressed via the different screens.

(TV.NXT was organised by afaqs!, in association with Big CBS (main sponsor) and Star News (associate sponsor). The other sponsors include UTV Action, Bloomberg UTV, Sony PIX, Sahara Samay and Mastii TV.)