I’m old enough to remember the first incarnation of the company called Nielsen, and the role it played in helping advertisers understand the potential of a then-new thing called television. Back in the day, Nielsen would regularly poll a panel of TV viewers and collect and dissect a wide range of metrics that brands could then use for their planning. Back then, TV was the newest, biggest, baddest thing in advertising, and its rapid ascent brought Nielsen a great deal of fame.
Of course, life is now harder for Nielsen and any other organization looking to measure video consumption. There are more devices, more modalities, and more metrics that matter to brands. One set of metrics is about adoption patterns of ethnic minorities, some which appear to be outpacing the general population in technology adoption. Still, it came as a surprise to me when I saw this headline last week: “New Nielsen Study Shows Hispanics Watch Less TV Than Whites and African-Americans.”
Really? The group – or shall I say metatribe – that has made at least one ethnic television such a powerhouse that it now rivals mainstream TV channels (even beating them in the ratings game on occasion)? Last time I checked – even with my own family (more on that below) – TV is still a very big thing in the lives of Latin Americans. The novella hasn’t died, Latino sports are going strong, and, yes, even some of the more unsavory things about Latin American TV still create conversation in intelligent circles mostly because they’re so pervasive. Spanish-language TV is very much alive, and it isn’t going away anytime soon.
Read the entire article at Clickz.