We don't even know what its monthly price will be, but streaming linear sports JV Venu Sports has already been somehow billed by several research companies as potentially being a profoundly disruptive force that could break the back of the U.S. pay TV business once and for all. 

Horowitz Research is the latest to render an eye-popping take on the Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery joint venture, which the companies said will launch sometime in the fall and bundle popular linear sports channels including ESPN, Fox Sports 1 and TNT. 

Assuming a price point of $35-$40 a month, 42% of 2,008 surveyed U.S. adults who identified themselves as "sports viewers" said they'll "likely" or "very likely" subscribe to Venu Sports, Horowitz said. 

Horowitz said 58% of sports viewers age 18-34 and 57% of those 35-49 indicated a likelihood to subscribe to Venu, described in Horowitz's survey as "a new subscription streaming service with ESPN+ content, plus live feeds." Only 23% of sports viewers age 50 and older indicated a likely inclination. 

Additionally, the research company said Latino (53%) and Black (50%) viewers over-index as describing themselves as likely Venu subscribers vs. white/non-hispanic (39%) and Asian (40%) TV sports consumers. 

Certainly, nearly 60% of "sports viewers" age 18-49 would seem to define a massive potential customer base of tens of millions of users -- a consumer migration that would seem to dramatically escalate the disruption for the already roiled U.S. pay TV ecosystem. 

Among those who said they'd likely sign up for Venu, 38% indicated a likelihood that they'll make major changes to their TV subscription portfolio. 

Asian consumers are seeing their images being reflected on the small screen in greater numbers across multiple platforms, according to a new survey from Horowitz Research.

According to Focus Asian: State of Consumer Engagement 2022 survey, 40% of Asian consumers reported seeing more Asian representation when it comes to TV content, including in shows such as Chicago Med, Squid Game, Pachinko, The Equalizer and The Cleaning Lady.

On the distribution front, 45% of those surveyed said that original content from streaming services had the best perceived representation of Asian people and their communities, while 41% see strong Asian representation from premium services, said Horowitz.

Also: ‘Chicago Med’s’ Tee Breaks Out, Breaks Stereotypes

In addition, nearly four in 10 consumers are seeing more nuanced portrayals of Asian characters and communities in scripted content, with dramas ranking as the top genre, according to the survey. Content from unscripted dating and lifestyle reality shows fared poorly in the survey, according to Horowitz.

Horowitz Research Chief Revenue Officer and Insights and Strategy Lead Adriana Waterson said that while the industry has been more focused on offering more inclusive programming across the board, there’s an opportunity to be even more inclusive with regards to the depth and breadth of multicultural images offered on TV.

Also: AIM/PAR Diversity Survey: Women Make Major Gains as Workplace Representation for People of Color Declines

“In the past few years, there’s been an important shift in focus on behalf of media companies and advertisers to do better when it comes to representation and inclusion in ads and content, which is being noticed,” Waterson said. “However, we are just at the beginning of the conversation about how to do diversity ‘right’. There is still a tremendous opportunity to be inclusive not just of Black and Latinx Americans who comprise the majority of multicultural America, but to reflect a broader multicultural sensibility that is inclusive of other cultural and ethnic communities — such as the very diverse Asian population in the U.S. — that do not get to see themselves portrayed on screen as often as some others do.” ■

As the protests and unrest over the death of George Floyd continues to play out on television screens, a new report from Horowitz Research underscores a growing disconnect between young viewers and the traditional news media.

Viewers 18-34 years of age get 53% of their news consumption from the internet compared to 21% for traditional television, according to Horowitz’s State of Viewing & Streaming 2020 study.

Young people question whether broadcast networks and cable news services like Fox News, CNN and MSNBC are providing a complete picture of the stories that they cover, according to the survey. Only 33% of 18- to 34-year-olds surveyed believe that television is the best way to get in-depth news reporting and analysis, said Horowitz. In comparison, 56% of adults 25-54 and 64% of adults 35+ offer a more favorable view of traditional television news.

“Can the major broadcast and cable outlets rise to the challenge of providing truth and perspective and less sensationalism?,” said Howard Horowitz, president of Horowitz Research. “Just like social media has provided new ways of exposing discrimination and misconduct, so too has it given young people a new way to view and understand the world around them, providing validation of what is really happening and holding major news outlets more accountable.”

Horowitz also reported that 58% of TV content viewers believe that the media plays a very big role in reinforcing stereotypes, and 68% say that they feel it is important that the media represent diverse people and communities in the U.S. in ways that challenge and break stereotypes.

“Poignantly, we are hearing from staff, family members, and social media that young people feel that their parents and older family members, who rely heavily on TV news, are not getting a well-rounded picture of the protests and why they are happening,” said Horowitz senior VP of insights and strategy Adriana Waterston. “Showing looting and sensationalizing violence creates more fear and obscures the issues of police brutality and persistent systemic racism that these young people are seeing, experiencing, and feeling.”

Related: Streaming Services Lead Broadcast Networks and Cable in Program Diversity

The report comes as the entertainment industry continues to use social media and traditional television platforms to reach out to African-Americans in light of the death of Floyd, who was killed while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.

Streaming service UMC on Tuesday posted on Instagram its support of the African-American community. “There are no words to describe the pain that we feel. As Black people, it is an unspoken language that only we as a community truly understand. We are beyond tired. We have had MORE than enough,” stated the AMC-owned service.

BET on Tuesday announced that it would be developing a series of specials addressing the issues facing Black America, including Justice Now: A BET Town Hall later this month as well as a June 19 BET News Presidential Forum in which the network has invited both President Donald Trump and Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden to discuss issues and concerns of the African-American community, according to network officials. 

“We stand in steadfast solidarity with George Floyd’s family, the many victims of racist brutality, and those who are using their voices and platforms to challenge it. There are no easy solutions for these systemic issues of racism, injustice, and trauma. BET is leveraging every platform and resource at our disposal to support and inform our community and help identify strategies and viable solutions in this time of crisis,” said BET President Scott Mills in a statement. "We are committed to using our unique ability to mobilize our powerful, cross-sector coalition of partners to help drive critical outcomes and amplify leading voices in the Black community.”

Multicultural viewers are moving toward streaming services to find diverse images on television as they look to the media in general to shoot down lingering and hurtful stereotypes, according to a new Horowitz Research study.

The Horowitz State of Viewing & Streaming 2020 study reports that 55% of all viewers who view programming on streaming services and linear television say outlets such as Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus do a better job of showcasing stories about and by people of color than broadcast and cable.

The shares increase among multicultural viewers: 58% of African-Americans, 61% of Hispanics and 64% of Asian-Americans say that streaming services are doing a better job of promoting diverse stories and images, according to the report.

Overall, the survey said 62% of viewers believe that representation of diverse segments of the population within the mainstream media has been improving, with both multicultural audiences and white audiences also pacing above the 60% range.

Horowitz senior VP of insights and strategy Adriana Waterston said the ability of the streaming services to offer much more content than traditional TV services, along with their ability to better market and promote content to multicultural audiences, gives their platforms a distinct advantage in reaching diverse viewer groups.

“Black, Asian and Hispanic consumers are heavy streamers, so they are finding more content that they resonate with through streaming services more than on traditional television,” Waterston said.

The Horowitz survey follows Nielsen’s 2019 Diverse Intelligence Series (DIS) Report, which showed that nearly 40% of African-American viewers subscribe to Netflix followed by Hulu at 15% and Amazon Prime Video at 14%. Cheryl Grace, Nielsen’s senior VP of U.S. strategic community alliances and consumer engagement, said streamers are just scratching the service on the amount of multicultural-themed programs they can offer.

“There’s still a ton of room to grow on the digital side,” Grace said. “It’s wonderful to have options and be able to turn on the TV and find people who look like me.”

But it’s not just the amount of content multicultural viewers are looking for from streaming services and traditional television outlets. Viewers are also looking for programmers to help dispel stereotypes about multicultural populations.

Nearly 70% of viewers said it’s important for the media to represent diverse people and communities in America in ways that bust stereotypes, according to Horowitz. Further, 57% of non-Hispanic white viewers agree that the media plays a very big role in reinforcing stereotypes, according to the survey.

“We’ve heard from multicultural viewers that it’s not just the amount of faces, but it’s also about how they are represented, from how they are portrayed in the news to what roles they play in shows,” Waterston said. “What’s interesting is that we’re seeing a growing awareness of the issue from white, non-Hispanic audiences who are saying that the story doesn’t have to have characters that look like me to be entertaining to me.” 

This story originally ran in Multichannel News. 

An emerging group of viewers are subscribing to both traditional cable and streaming services in an effort to satisfy their voracious viewing habits, according to a new viewer study from Horowitz Research. 

The Horowitz State of Viewing & Streaming study reports that 15% of viewers -- defined by Horowitz as “Mega Omnivores” -- view content both through a traditional cable subscription as well as through virtual MVPDs such as DirecTV Now, YouTube TV and Sling TV. On a weekly basis, this group -- comprised mostly of younger, male-skewing viewers with high incomes -- streams its content 54% of the time, according to the report.

The online survey of more than 1,600 TV content viewers also reported that traditional television viewers remain the biggest group, with 35% of “5 O’Clock Diners” watching live TV content through traditional MVPDs or through antennas, according to the study. These viewers tend to be older, have a lower average income and are less likely to have children in the home, said Horowitz.

“Omnivores” -- viewers who only subscribe to an MVPD but occasionally stream content through services such as Netflix and Hulu -- comprise 30% of TV content viewers, according to the study.

“With more options than ever for accessing on-demand and live TV content, consumers have the freedom to build a customized viewing experience based on what they want to watch and how they want to watch it,” said Adriana Waterston, Horowitz’s senior vice president of insights and strategy in a statement. “The good news is that we see most consumers still wanting a robust experience that includes a wide variety of networks, viewing experiences, and both on-demand and live opportunities.”

Among the study’s other findings, 12% of TV content viewers (Content Paleos) stream all of their content, but don’t subscribe to a vMVPD; 6% (Flexitarian Lites) stream most of their content but have an antenna to watch live TV; and 3% (Flexitarians) -- who tend to be young and multicultural -- stream all of their content and also subscribe to a vMVPD, according to the report. 

African American consumers not only watch more linear television compared to all audiences, but they also stream content at a higher percentage than all other consumers, according to a new report from Horowitz Research.

Nearly three quarters (74%) of black TV viewers report streaming at least some of their TV content, compared to 68% of all television viewers, according to Horowitz’s FOCUS Black: The Media Landscape report. Further, 65% of African-American streamers say they watch more TV content than they did five years ago.

The high percentage of African-American video streamers shouldn’t be surprising given the group’s voracious consumption of media. A recent Nielsen Total Audience Report for the first quarter of 2018 reported that African-American adults consume nearly 13 and a half hours of media per day, almost two and one-half hours more than the average adult.  

“Black consumers have long been some of traditional multichannel’s best customers," says Adriana Waterston, senior vice president of Insights & Strategy at Horowitz. "Super-serving this valuable and entertainment-oriented audience is critical for any player in the pay TV space.”

Indeed, African-American viewers overwhelmingly tune into content that feature their images and stories, particularly on digital platforms. Horowitz reported that 64% of African-American streamers say they will check out a show if it features a Black character or cast, and 57% say that shows featuring racial or other sociopolitical themes appeal to them.

That should bode well for targeted subscription video on demand services like Urban Movie Channel and Brown Sugar -- which directly target African-American viewers -- as well as mainstream video streaming services like Netflix, which looks to appeal to African-American viewers with targeted, original content like its Spike Lee-produced series She’s Gotta Have It and the recently launched comedy All About the Washingtons.