() — Latinos are avid consumers of television content, and having representation on screen is driving many of them to spend more time on streaming platforms and binge-watch shows, says a new Nielsen viewership report.
The reportreleased Wednesday, looks at how Latinos view television and the impact of representation, both on camera and behind it.
Almost half of all television watched by Latinos in the United States in July was attributed to streaming platforms, according to the report. About 23.1% was live or traditional television, and 20% was cable.
Compared to the entire US population, Latinos spent less time watching live traditional television in the first quarter of this year. People across the US watched a total of about 20 hours per week, while Latinos only watched 18 hours, according to the Nielsen report.
From 2021 through the first quarter of this year, the researchers analyzed the 530 most-watched shows in the US and worked to identify what appealed to the Latino audience.
They found that shows where Latinos only worked behind the scenes had an average of 25.2% cultural following. Meanwhile, shows with Latino representation behind and in front of the camera increased their following by almost 10%, to 34.2%, according to the report.
Of the 530 shows analyzed, only 36 had the same percentage of Latino representation as the population, which is 19%, the report says.
Among the 134 shows that were considered high viewership based on the industry scale, 56 had Latino representation on at least one side of the camera.
Stacie de Armas, senior vice president of Diverse Insights and Initiatives at Nielsen, said the report shows that “it’s clear that inclusion plays an important role in the attractiveness and cultural watchability of content for Latinos.”
“It is also significant that Latino-led content not only responds to Latino audiences, but also attracts new viewers and subscribers to the platforms, who stay longer and consume more content, demonstrating the power of Latino-led content.” Arms added.
Nielsen’s report comes at a time when Latinos from all corners of the industry and even some in the political sphere have criticized the lack of representation in recent years.
Last year, the US Government Accountability Office published a report in which he stated that Latino workers represented about 12% of the entire workforce in the media industry, including film, television, publishing and news. That’s a lower percentage of Hispanic workers than all other industries combined in 2019, according to the report.
A 2020 Netflix diversity audit by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative revealed that only 4.5% of main cast members from over 300 original movies and scripted series released on the platform from January 2018 to December 2019 were Latino actors and filmmakers during that two-year period. At the time, Netflix said it needed to license more original Latino content.
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