Ethnic Viewers Turned Off By Terrestrial TV
70% of Britain’s South Asian community feels under-served by programming on terrestrial TV channels, according to research from Ethnic Focus.
The research, which was commissioned by Sky, also reveals that multichannel TV penetration is significantly higher within Asian households than in the average UK household. BARB figures show that almost 44% of all UK households have multichannel TV, but this figure rises to 56% of all Asian households.
According to the research, 54% of South Asians say that ITV is an essential channel to have, compared with 87% for the BBC and 96% for Sky Digital channels. The importance of digital TV in Asian homes is partly due to Asian-language TV, which 39% of respondents regularly watch.
Saber Khan, research director at Ethnic Focus, commented: “This milestone piece of research shows for the first time that ethnic media consumption within this sector is high. Multichannel TV now plays the major role in meeting the TV demands of Asians.”
The research marks the 10th anniversary of Asian Broadcasting in the UK and according to Lesley Mackenzie, director of channels and operations at BSkyB, will provide information which will help Sky develop its ethnic programming.
David Fletcher, head of Medialab at Mediaedge: cia recently criticised the lack of ethnic diversity in advertising, noting that only 13% of advertising appears to represent people in minority communities (see MRG Conference: Advertising Lacks Ethnic Diversity).
The ad industry’s failure to reflect the cultural diversity of the population it is attempting to connect with, was illustrated further by the resent results of the IPA Census, which revealed that almost 96% of employees come from a white, British background (see IPA Census Brings Good News For Smaller Agencies).
BSkyB: 0207 705 3000 www.sky.com
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