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Hispanic Television Viewing Trends

"Television is the medium of choice for Hispanics, regardless of the language they learned first" according to American Demographics. Hispanics make media choices based on demographic and life style considerations. Additional components affecting media choices include:

The table below outlines two of the key types of television viewing households and their respective language stratifications as compared to the total population:

HOUSEHOLD DISTRIBUTION BY LANGUAGE:
Langauge
Total Hispanic
Cable Plus
Non-Cable
Only/Mostly Spanish
37.8
34.5
46.3
Spanish/English Equal
27.8
28.9
24.9
Only/Mostly English
34.4
36.6
28.8

Source: Nielsen Media Research

SHARE OF TOTAL TV VIEWING:

When looking at total share of television viewing, the various media vehicles are:

English Language Broadcast, English Language Cable, English Language Independents, Spanish Language Cable, Spanish Language Independents and Spanish Language Broadcast. Viewing shares vary by demo and language preference. The three key viewing universes are:

Outlined below are the viewing shares within the Hispanic audience by demo,

segmented by these three key viewing universes:

TOTAL HISPANIC HOUSEHOLD HIGHLIGHTS:
Total Households
K2-11
T12-17
W18-49
M18-49
A18+
HH
English Language Broadcast
18.3%
30.3%
26.7%
22.5%
24.4%
25.0%
English Language Cable
43.5%
39.0%
21.7%
28.3%
25.5%
31.3%
English Language Independents
2.1%
2.0%
2.1%
2.7%
2.2%
2.3%
Spanish Language Cable
2.2%
1.8%
1.8%
2.8%
2.1%
2.0%
Spanish Language Independents
3.6%
2.8%
4.1%
5.6%
4.5%
3.7%
Spanish Language Broadcast
30.4%
24.0%
43.5%
38.1%
41.3%
35.6%

HISPANIC CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:
Cable Households
K2-11
T12-17
W18-49
M18-49
A18+
HH
English Language Broadcast
9.9%
20.1%
21.2%
19.2%
21.0%
20.1%
English Language Cable
60.3%
54.6%
33.4%
40.8%
36.4%
42.9%
English Language Independents
1.1%
.9%
1.3%
1.5%
1.5%
1.5%
Spanish Language Cable
3.1%
2.4%
2.7%
4.0%
3.0%
2.7%
Spanish Language Independents
1.8%
1.8%
2.1%
3.2%
2.6%
2.4%
Spanish Language Broadcast
23.8%
20.4%
39.3%
31.4%
35.5%
30.4%

SPANISH DOMINANT HOUSEOLD HIGHLIGHTS:
K2-11
T12-17
W18-49
M18-49
A18+
HH
English Language Broadcast
11.4%
16.9%
9.5%
9.0%
8.4%
10.6%
English Language Cable
32.6%
25.6%
11.6%
15.8%
13.6%
18.5%
English Language Independents
2.2%
1.8%
1.9%
2.7%
2.1%
2.4%
Spanish Language Cable
3.4%
4.1%
2.9%
4.2%
3.3%
3.3%
Spanish Language Independents
4.9%
4.6%
6.7%
8.1%
7.2%
6.2%
Spanish Language Broadcast
45.5%
47.0%
67.5%
60.2%
65.3%
58.9%

Source: Nielsen Media Research Custom Analysis (01/26/04 – 2/29/04)
English Broadcast: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX,P AX , UPN, WB
English Language Cable: All measured ad-supported English language cable networks
Spanish Broadcast: Telemundo, Univision, Telefutura
Spanish Language Cable: Discovery en Espanol, Galavision, mun2, CNN Espanol, Fox Sports en Espanol and MTV Espanol, Canal Sur, Gol TV and VHUno.

ABOUT SPANISH LANGUAGE CABLE VIEWING:

There is a direct correlation between language and television viewing.

LANGUAGE STRATIFICATION AND CABLE TELEVISION VIEWING:

Spanish Language Cable has more hours of programming targeted for men, kids and youth than Spanish Language Broadcast.

Within all three universes (Spanish Dominant, Total and Cable), the W18-49 demo, has the lowest level of viewing to this medium as alternative programming has captured their attention. As current programming continues to evolve and new, more relevant programming outlets emerge, so will viewership to this demo.

Although in many cases, these networks are not fully distributed, they are still able to have viewing shares that range between 2 – 4 points against the total viewing options that are available to Hispanics. This number is considerably higher when you look at their share of Spanish language viewing options.

There is a very clear pattern of viewership to this medium:

The strongest level of viewing to Spanish Language Cable is within the Spanish Dominant households because this is considered another in-language viewing option. Share of viewing within this universe is higher by an average of 1.5 – 3 share points than those in Total Hispanic and Hispanic Cable Households. The second strongest viewing is found in Cable Households where they are looking for diversified viewing opportunities. Since 35% of this audience is Spanish Dominant coupled with 29% that is Bi-lingual, Spanish Language Cable is a viable option. The lowest share of viewing to Spanish Language Cable is within the Total Hispanic Household, this is due to the impact of English Dominants into this universe, which has the highest level of viewing to English language options. Currently, Hispanic Cable penetration is at 72.6%,as this number continues to reach critical mass, viewing shares will accelerate as well.

Viewership is tied to penetration and individual Spanish language cable network penetration numbers are increasing at a steady pace:

CABLE COVERAGE BY PERCENT OF HISPANIC HOUSEHOLDS:
Network
% of Hispanic Pop.
Quarter 4, 2002
% of Hispanic Pop.
Quarter 1, 2004
Growth
Canal Sur
9.1
12.7
39.6%
Cine Latino
9.7
13,9
43.3%
CNN en Español
10.2
13.7
34.3%
Discovery en Español
10.7
13.7
28.0%
Fox Sports en Español
20.7
26.6
28.5%
Galavisión
49.1
53.7
9.4%
HBO Latino
13.2
16.6
25.8%
MTV en Español
11.7
16.2
38.5%
mun2
26.1
32.0
22.6%
VH1 Uno
0.0
4.0
n/a
Gol TV
0.0
7.0
n/a

Source: Nielsen Media Research

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Content © 2005 by Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau (www.onetvworld.org). Reprinted with Permission.