Nearly 70% of This Year’s New TV Series Are BIPOC-Inclusive

Originally published on Gracenote (a Nielsen company) Insights

Diversity and inclusion have become increasingly important media buying considerations in recent years, especially during the lead up to each new fall TV season. Pinpointing the right investments, however, has become more challenging amid the busy landscape, but the outlook for diverse TV content premiering this year looks promising.

With more than 1.2 million unique video titles¹ available to U.S. audiences alone, media buying has never been more complex, especially through the lens of inclusivity. Diverse-owned media plays a critical role here, but premium original content presents new opportunities for media buyers looking to be more inclusive with their ad spending. A recent analysis of new TV series premiering this year, for example, found that 85 out of 124, or 68.5%, have BIPOC² representation in their primary casts.

Zeroing in on the inclusivity of specific programming can help media buyers looking to identify the right content matches for their value propositions and messages. That’s because aggregated inclusivity levels in content don’t change much across linear, cable and streaming programming on a year-over-year basis. The abundance of content also tends to overshadow the increasing inclusivity that has taken place in recent years.

The average share of cast³ for Asian and Pacific Islanders in broadcast programming, for example, increased from 5% in 2022 to 5.2% in 2023⁴. While informative, averages like these mask true ad buying opportunities. Comparatively, share of cast inclusivity for Asian and Pacific Islanders within NBC programming increased from 5% to just under 8% last year, which is higher than this group’s percentage of the U.S. population (6.8%).

Marketers have been pledging to be more inclusive with their ad spending in recent years, and most efforts have been largely reliant on finding media that’s owned by minority, LGBTQ and women owners. In addition to advancing their investments in diverse-owned media, brands and agencies have access to datasets that can increase the inclusivity of their broader spending. These datasets can be particularly useful in programmatic buying as audiences continue to increase their CTV⁵ usage.

With an understanding that TV audiences 18 and older spend approximately 54% of their total time with TV watching live programming⁶, Gracenote’s analysis of this year’s premiering TV highlights the increasing diversity and inclusion in upcoming premium original programming.

Here are some highlights:

• BIPOC representation is above 50% across all major U.S. streaming services.
• Netflix has the most streaming originals in 2024, and more than 30 have BIPOC representation.
• All Disney streaming services have BIPOC represented across the company’s premiering content on Disney+, Hulu and Freeform.
• Apple TV+ and Amazon each have more than 75% BIPOC representation in their new 2024 series.
• New programming across traditional TV networks remains low following the strikes that took place in 2023, but NBC, FOX and Paramount all have programs debuting in 2024 that feature BIPOC representation in their top cast lineups.

While streaming services will have more new programming this year than traditional, linear channels, the pivot among streaming publishers to offer ad-supported tiers and subscription plans means that advertisers and agencies have ample opportunities for their fall TV spending across all TV programming. This is particularly relevant now that 75% of U.S. audiences 18 and older⁵ have CTV devices to stream video on.

And as CTV usage and programmatic spending rise, advertisers can leverage new and emerging datasets to better reach and engage with specific audiences through relevant content. And that will help foster a greater sense of inclusion across the broader media landscape.

Notes

1. Gracenote Global Video Data; May 2024
2. Black, indigenous and other people of color.
3. The percentage of an identity group that is part of a program’s recurring cast members.
4. Gracenote Inclusion Analytics
5. CTV refers to any television that is connected to the internet. The most common use case is to stream video content.
6. Nielsen National TV Panel; Q4 2023

For additional insights, download Gracenote’s 2024 inclusive ad spend report