Nielsen: Asian-Americans Lead in Digital Viewing

Young Asian-Americans are watching more video on computers and mobile devices than any other demographic group, according to Nielsen’s secondquarter 2014 Cross-Platform Report.

Asian viewers ages 18 to 34 spent 51 minutes a day consuming online and mobile content, defined by Nielsen as digital video, during the second quarter, up from 38 minutes during the same period last year, according to the report. Asian viewers in the demo, however, watched the fewest hours of content on traditional TV compared with other ethnic groups, at just two hours and 42 minutes a day.

African-Americans ages 18 to 34 spent a whopping six hours and 12 minutes viewing traditional TV daily during the quarter, slightly above second-quarter 2013 numbers. The group was slightly behind Asians on the digital- video front, watching an average of nearly 48 minutes a day of content on computers and mobile devices, although that nearly doubled the 27 minutes of average viewing time from a year ago.

Hispanic millennials watched 35 minutes of digital video a day, up from 27 minutes a year prior, while consuming three hours and 46 minutes of traditional TV — slightly below the three hours and 58 minutes watched a year ago.

Overall, African-Americans spent more than 206 hours a month viewing traditional TV in the second quarter, and watched another 12 hours of time-shifted TV. Hispanics viewed 117 hours of traditional TV and more than nine hours of time-shifted content on a monthly basis, while Asians tuned in to 83 hours of traditional TV and nine hours of time-shifted TV per month during Q2, according to Nielsen.

All three groups nearly doubled the number of enabled smart televisions in their respective households versus a year ago. African-American smart-TV ownership jumped from 530,000 during Q2 2013 to more than 1 million a year later, while the number of Hispanics who purchased smart TVs was up from 769,000 in Q2 2013 to more than 1.7 million this year, per Nielsen. More than 900,000 Asian households had enabled smart TVs during Q2, up from 485,000 during the same period last year.

With regard to mobile devices, 82% of Asian-Americans had smartphones capable of streaming video, compared with 78% of African-Americans, 79% of Hispanics and 68% of whites, per the report.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.