The Melting Blog

The Tidal Wave of New Asian American Media

Jeff Yang, the former publisher of aMagazine turned marketing mogul and a sometimes scribe, pens his astonishment at the sudden wave of 24-hour Asian American media that is about to flood the cable TV marketplace (first mentioned here last Sat). Here's a key highlight from his article in last week's San Francisco Chronicle, a quote from KTSF's station manager (about something quite familiar to folks who know my schtick):

"Looking around now, I sometimes say to myself, 'My God...what did we start?'" says Mike Sherman, general manager of KTSF.

It was Sherman who got the ball rolling on the program that would become Stir, commissioning a series of focus groups to explore the tastes and viewership interests of the Asian American youth market. "We've been in the Asian media market for 28 years, and we've always tried to follow demographic trends," he says. "The people we began serving back in 1976, they have children now, and those children speak English. We couldn't ignore this burgeoning second generation."

What those focus groups identified was a theme that runs through the business plans of all of these newly launched channels: The primary thing that young Asian Americans were hungry to see on TV was...themselves.

Yang also goes on to describe how Comcast -- the new owners of the International Channel -- tripled I-Channel's budget to produce original English-language programming this upcoming year to reach the Asian American second generation. Moreover, the article proffers an detailed glimpse into the inaugurations of ImaginAsian, American Desi, and MTV World (the tent that holds the yet-to-be-launched MTV Desi, MTV China, and MTV Korea).

I'm in equal amazement at the sudden rush to capture the 2ndGen market. Compared to just two short years ago, the ethnic media universe has practically upended itself in order to catch up to the demographic reality. It's Kuhn-sian how paradigmatically different the media landscape is becoming. But before we get all drunk on euphoria, it's good to remember these networks are still behind the curve too, with alot of ground to cover over the next few years. The jury's still out. Next up: eagerly awaiting MTV World's next big announcement...

Posted by thomas at February 9, 2005 08:00 AM | TrackBack