African Americans on Leading Edge of Advanced Media Technologies

Concerns about an ethnic digital divide that once confronted government regulators and cable television operators are no longer an issue, according to the new Myers Emotional Connections Study of the media usage patterns of 4,000 adult (18-65) Americans (including a nationally representative sample of African Americans). Myers' assessment of ownership and usage of 32 technology-dependent products and services establishes that African Americans own and use these products, overall, in exactly the same proportion as the total adult population. (The Myers study, conducted online by OTX, also provides data on technology usage among Hispanic and Asian audiences, as well as multiple demographic, socio-economic, geographic and psychographic groups. The full study tracks viewers' attentiveness to commercials and engagement with programming for 100 TV networks and 400 individual TV programs.)

If there is any remaining digital divide, it is balanced in favor of the Black community and is defined by age and the use of instant messaging and cell phone text messaging.

In fact, 37.1% of African Americans have high speed DSL Internet connectivity provided by their phone company, compared to 30.8% of white adults, balanced by 35.8% of African Americans who have high-speed cable modem service vs. 41.9% of white Americans. Thirty percent of African American adults have Internet connections through dial-up service compared to 28.9% of white adults. (Some duplication exists due to multiple services.) 57.6 percent of African Americans spend more than three hours using the Internet daily compared to 51.2% of total adults who spend three hours or more using the Internet.

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Asked which services they had accessed in the past week, 66.7% of African Americans used Yahoo!, 38.3% used MSN, and 27.5% accessed AOL. Among total adults, 61.4% used Yahoo!, 37.8% accessed MSN, and 19.9% used AOL. Eighteen percent of total adults used AIM instant messaging compared to 12% of African American adults.

If there is any remaining digital divide, it is balanced in favor of the Black community and is defined by age and the use of instant messaging and cell phone text messaging. A separate Myers Emotional Connections study conducted among 1,000 teens reports 52% of all teens 13-17 years old (51% of African American teens) use AIM instant messaging (vs. 18% of adults). And 54.4% of teen African Americans have cell phones equipped with text messaging compared to 44.6% of white 13 to 17 year olds. Thirty percent of Black teens have cell phones that are Internet-enabled vs. 18.9% of white teens; and 37.9% have cell phones with a camera compared to 28.4% of the white teen population. Seventy-one percent of all teens 13-17 years old own a cell phone.

Thirty-five percent of adult Blacks have cell phones equipped with text messaging; 16.3% have a cell phone with Internet connectivity; and 21.6% have cell phones with a camera. By comparison, 24.5% of white adults have cell phones with text messaging; 11.2% with Internet connections; and 16.8% with cameras. The same total percentage of Black and white Americans (69%) have cell phones. Teens also are more likely to have used a cell phone equipped with a television signal, with 3.4% of teens (4.5% of Black teens) saying they used a TV-equipped cell phone compared to only 0.8% of adults (and 1.2% of African American adults) saying they use cell phone TV service.

African Americans are also on the leading edge of videogame expansion. Fifty-three percent of African American teens and 26.4% of Black adults say they used a videogame player in the past week. Comparatively, 44.4% of white teens and 21.6% of white adults used a videogame player.

In the cable universe, the Myers study confirms separate research proving African American audiences are more likely to use video-on-demand services, with 12% saying they used VOD in the past week compared to nine percent of total adults.

Fourteen percent of total teens and 17% of Black teens says they use VOD service. When asked which three media types are most valuable to them and would be most difficult to live without, 22.6% of African America adults say Pay-TV programming compared to 14.3% of white adults. Among Black teens, 20.5% says Pay-TV programming is most valuable to them compared to only 11.2% of white teens.

Fifty-five percent of African American teens say basic cable/satellite service is most valuable to them vs. 42% of white teens. Forty-three percent of Black teens say broadcast TV is most valuable, compared to only 26% of white teens. Among adults, 62% of Blacks and 67% of whites include broadcast TV among their most valuable media, while 51% of Blacks and 52% of whites include basic cable/satellite TV.

Interestingly, Black American DVR owners say they are less likely to skip commercials when they play back programming. Among those African Americans who own a DVR, 53.4% say they skip all or most commercials. There is a dramatic difference among white audiences, with 83.1% saying they skip all or most commercials. Among Hispanic audiences, 63.9% say they skip all or most commercials. 53.5% of Asian audiences say they skip all or most commercials. Among teens, 66.5% of white DVR users skip all or most commercials, compared to only 44.5% of teen Blacks.

Myers plans to repeat the Emotional Connections Study twice annually, and is expanding it's survey of engagement and attentiveness to print and online media brands in 2006. For more information and detailed methodology of the Myers Emotional Connection Studies contact Jack Myers at jm@jackmyers.com.