A new Horowitz Research survey indicates companies offering TV, pay TV, SVOD and advertising-supported streaming services need to develop comprehensive strategies for attracting Black viewers, who are more likely to use or subscribe to a wide variety of video services than the general population.
The Horowitz survey indicates that Black audiences over-indexe for MVPD subscriptions (46% of black consumers have a subscription versus 44% for the total market); SVOD subscriptions (86% compared to 81% for the total market), virtual MVPDs like YouTube TV; (34% compared to 23% for the total market); and free streaming services (80% compared to 70% for the total market.)
African-American viewers were less likely to have an antenna for free over-the-air reception, with 17% of Black consumers accessing OTA channels compared with 19% for the total market.
The “State of Media, Entertainment, and Tech: Viewing Behaviors 2025” and “FOCUS Black Volume 1: Subscriptions 2025” studies also showed significant changes in how Black audiences access video. During the last five years, the percentage of Black consumers who could access TV channels via an antenna fell from 40% in 2020 to 17% in 2025, and those with a MVPD subscription fell dropped from 82% to 46%.
Meanwhile, the share of African Americans who accessed free OTT streaming services rose from 57% in 2020 to 80% in 2025, as the take-up of SVOD subscriptions rose from 72% in 2020 to 86% in 2025 and the share of viewers with a vMVPD subscription rose from 29% to 34%.
Data also showed that 10 years ago, in 2015, only 5% of Black households relied solely on streaming and 44% relied just on MVPD subscriptions. Today, 47% of viewers in the demo rely solely on streaming and only 5% exclusively on MVPDs.
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