USA: What's the value of black viewers in the streaming marketplace?

Black households in the U.S. are contributing to the purchase, subscription, and usage of entertainment sources at a rate beyond other groups, as reported by Hub Intel. This goes for SVODs, FASTs, premium cable channels, as well as over-the-air broadcast TV.

Moreover, black viewers in the U.S. are the most likely to say there are more good TV shows today than there used to be, to try the shows a streaming service suggests, and take note of upcoming series and movies. And for this audience, behavior follows from their positive attitudes – Black viewers are the most likely to watch 30 or more hours of TV per week.

Black viewers are also more likely to belong to the group Hub has dubbed “Swappers” – consumers who both add and subtract TV services in a typical month. And when they do make a change, they are more likely to add or drop multiple services. “Always fresh” content is the main draw for those who sign up for a new subscription. Once again for this group, behavior corresponds with attitudes – they say they keep track of new series and movies, and they follow through by joining up for services that have them.

With the video marketplace reaching maturation, and subscriber growth hard to come by, black viewers represent both opportunity and risk for streamers. With so many services trading subscribers back and forth, it’s important to recruit as well as retain customers.

At a time when the phrase Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is enough to trigger an angry backlash, the entertainment industry needs to remain steadfast in making their offerings more inclusive for black audiences. The road to profitability for streamers is already difficult enough, and overlooking an audience segment that highly values the content and subscribes to a wide array of services is risky business.