Microsoft’s recent content deals
with cable network-based on-demand services
for its Xbox 360 have thrust video-game consoles
onto the TV-content distribution field in a big way.
Xbox, which inked content deals with HBO
Go, Epix, Bravo and Syfy, as well as Comcast’s
Xfinity TV and Verizon Communications’
FiOS TV, joins Sony’s PlayStation 3, which offers
live Major League Baseball, National Hockey
League and National Football League game
packages, in hoping to become as synonymous
with Boardwalk Empire as it is with Madden ’12.
Initially, the biggest audience for the
bulked-up video-game offerings will be
young, multicultural viewers. That audience
overindexes in video-game console purchases
and is more apt to use such devices to watch video
than mainstream consumers, per two new multicultural
media surveys.
About 32% of Asian, 32% of Hispanic and 28% of
African-American broadband users have at least one gaming
device in the home, compared to 22% of their white
counterparts, according to a recent Horowitz
Associates Multiplatform Content and Services
survey.
Hispanics, in particular, are prone to using
their portable players for more than just play.
While 87% of Hispanics play video games on
the Xbox or PlayStation 3, CTAM’s Tracking
How Entertainment, Demographics and Technology
Have Changed in the U.S. report noted
that 63% of Hispanics also use their consoles to
watch movies, 54% to view sitcoms and 41% to
watch live or on-demand sports.
Overall, more than 60% of Asian, African
American and Hispanic consumers have devices
or software that streams Internet-delivered video
content to their television sets — whether it’s an
Xbox,a PlayStation 3, a Roku streaming device or a service
like Netflix — compared to 53% of white broadband users.
Companies looking to deliver programming content via
nontraditional platforms should not ignore multicultural
consumers, who are already highly engaged and early
adopters of emerging video distribution platforms.
