EthnicMajority

(Mediapost) While broadband penetration in general has lagged among Asian, African-American and Hispanic households, these groups are quickly catching up.

They tend, however, to over-index in consumption of multiplatform TV, including TV viewed online and via handheld devices, according to a new study from Horowitz Associates titled “Multiplatform Content and Services: Multicultural Edition.”

The Horowitz study, based on a survey of 1,000 broadband users across the entire United States with Internet at home, found that 48% of Asian broadband users watch TV content online, followed by Hispanic broadband users at 46% and African-American and white broadband users at 35% each.

Some 16% of Asians, 22% of Hispanics and 19% of black broadband users watch TV content on a handheld device.

Despite new technologies, traditional TV viewing dominates, as most respondents said they do most of their viewing with a TV set — even when occasionally accessing alternative platforms. Among respondents who said they sometimes watch video on an alternative platform, 70% of Asians, 75% of Hispanics, 74% of African-Americans, and 75% of whites remain loyal viewers of a traditional TV set.

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(NY Times) While broadband adoption for Americans finally slowed over all last year after double-digit growth each of the previous five years, with two-thirds now connected, usage among African-Americans jumped 22 percent this year over 2009, according to a Pew report.

In every major category, from job opportunities to acquiring health information, more African-American and Hispanic adults regard lack of broadband access as “a major disadvantage” than whites do. Nearly half of African-Americans believe expanding broadband access should be a top government priority, compared with just under two-fifths of whites.

The average broadband user pays $41.18 monthly for service. About one in five adults never use the Internet, with roughly half of nonusers citing its irrelevance to their lives. Three in five say they would need assistance to go online.

“Although the rise in home broadband usage among African-Americans seems surprising in light of the current recession,” said Aaron Smith, senior research specialist at Pew, the fact that a greater percentage of African-Americans say lack of broadband access is a disadvantage. particularly for obtaining career information, “speaks to a recognition within the African-American community that digital connectivity is essential, even — and perhaps especially — during hard economic times.” TEDDY WAYNE

(USA Today) Broadband adoption in the home is slowing in the U.S. That’s what the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project is saying in a fascinating report that is just out.

Sixty-six percent of American adults now have a broadband Internet connection at home, the report says, little changed from the 63% mark recorded a year ago. That follows years of double-digit growth.

What’s more, Pew says that most demographic groups had flat to modest broadband adoption growth over the last year with one major exception: 56% of the African-American community now have broadband connections in the home, compared to 46% in 2009.

There are a variety of reasons why African-Americans are bucking the trend, starting with the notion that the group was starting out from a smaller base of users. But Pew’s Senior Research Specialist Aaron Smith, the author of the report, also thinks African- Americans are now more likely to own cellphones, use the mobile Web and social media apps, and that Internet providers themselves may be more aggressive in targeting populations with historically lower adoption rates.

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