Multicultural Youth Conference Showcases Cable’s Plans For The Next Generation.

Horowitz Associates, Inc. 3rd Annual Forum on the State of Cable and Broadband, America’s Multicultural Youth: The Next Generation was held at the NY Marriott Marquis to a packed audience of 200+ media industry executives. David Zaslav, President of NBC Cable, outlined NBC’s strategy to reach America’s Latino audiences with its Telemundo and mun2 properties.

Horowitz president, Howard Horowitz and Adriana Waterston, Director of Marketing, presented data that show media consumption among multicultural 12-24 year olds across America: 21% have 5 or more TV’s at home; 79% have Internet access at home; 39% have high speed cable or DSL. Thirty-six percent of youth have cable/satellite TV in their bedroom (38% white; 41% black; 35% Latino; 15% Asian) and 24% have a computer in their bedroom (23% white; 21% black; 23% Latino; 42% Asian). An equal number of America’s multicultural youth watch news programming (36%) as watch music videos (37%) on TV everyday.

News tops the programming genre watched by America’s multicultural 16-24 year olds (37% of 16-19 year olds; 57% 20-24 year olds). Music videos is the top genre for 12-15 year olds (46%).

“The demographic and geographic facts are right before our eyes. The time is now to realize that the urban, multicultural and multicolored market is the new general market in America,” adds Alisse Waterston, Ph.D., cultural anthropologist and president of Surveys Unlimited division of Horowitz Associates.

“Unlike previous generations, multicultural youth are growing up in a diverse, multicolored and digitally-connected world, and they represent the next generation of the TV household, concluded Adriana Waterston.

Mr. Horowitz advised, “Embrace, don’t run from the fact that young people use the choice and control that digital and interactive technology allows. Media content and service providers must step up branding efforts and create communities of interest for real-time audiences on converged TV and Internet platforms.”

Special guest Richard Roberts of Goldman, Sachs revealed new investment strategies in urban U.S. markets. Scott Tenney, VP, Comcast; Joe Rooney, SVP, Cox; Artie Bulgrin, SVP, ESPN; Lee Chaffin, SVP, BET; Jim Honiotes, VP, International Channel; Andrew Tow, CEO, Atom Television Corp; and David Intrator, President, Intramedia also spoke at the conference.