September 12, 2008

Cable by the Numbers: 2008 Diversity Issue Edition

CableFAX: The Magazine's 2008 Most Influential Minorities in Cable by the numbers (encompassing top 50 and second 50 executives only):

• Number of executives appearing in the top 50 or second 50 for the first time: 24

• Women/Men: 48/52

• Holds top post at a cable programmer: 9

• Holds top post at an MSO: 0

• Holds title above VP level: 70

27%: Percentage of blacks on opening day rosters of Major League Baseball in 1975.
2%: Percentage today
1: Number of major league teams with at least 2 black starting pitchers. [Tampa Bay Rays, leading the American League East as of August 14] (SI)

100,000: The number of condoms made available to the diverse group of 10,500 athletes in Beijing’s Olympics village. While sex is not yet an Olympic sport, "there are many young, strong, single people in the athletes’ village and, like everywhere, some will fall in love..." UNAIDS China spokesman Ole Hansen said.
70,000: The number of condoms provided at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The athletes "quickly" exhausted the supply.
20,000: The number of additional condoms brought in to Sydney’s Olympics Village. (Reuters, Aug 12)

50%: Percentage of cable companies participating in the 2006 NAMIC multi-ethnic employment survey that had employee resource groups, which are critical for recruitment, retention and marketing to diverse communities. All the MSOs in the survey had a senior executive as a member of the group vs one-third of the reporting programming networks.
94%: Percentage of DiversityInc’s Top 50 companies that had them. (NAMIC)

29%: Percentage of people of color working at the cable companies in the 2006 NAMIC survey.
34%: Percentage of people of color employed at DiversityInc’s Top 50 companies.
11%: People of color in middle management at the cable companies.
16.5%: People of color in middle management at DiversityInc’s Top 50 companies.
14.2%: People of color in senior management at the cable companies.
15.2%: People of color in senior management at the Top 50 companies. (NAMIC)

98.2%: The percentage of U.S. households with a TV set in 2005; the figure is unchanged since 1999.
66%: The percentage of TV households with cable. (U.S. Census Bureau, 6/3/08)

14: The number of times WICT chief Benita Fitzgerald Mosley was an All-American at the University of Tennessee. She also won 4 NCAA titles in the hurdles and a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics and the 1983 Pan American games.
57: Number of antennas on Air Force 1, which boasts secure broadband access, phones and two-way satellite conferencing; after 9/11 it was updated to allow the President to deliver a televised address from the air. (Secret Access: Air Force One, a special on History, 8/25/08)

70 million: The number of Americans aged 55 and older.
124 million: The number of Americans 55 and older expected by the year 2050; the group of Americans aged 85+ will have tripled in size by 2050 (Federal Interagency Forum on Aging Related Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, quoted in Retirement Living TV’s Research Connection Fact Book.)

The following numbers come from polls on our Cable360.net site:
45%: Those who said cable operators, DBS and the telcos are more likely to contribute to the Republican party in the general election for the presidency; 28% said both parties would get equal contributions; 27% said the Democrats would get more.

38%: Those who said digital phone would be the most likely of cable’s triple play to be dropped by recession-hit subscribers; 27% said digital cable would be dropped first, while 7% said high-speed access would; 28% said no services would be dropped.

GO TO CABLE360.NET TO RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING POLL QUESTION:
Would a Barack Obama presidency make cable’s diversity efforts seem less urgent in the eyes of some industry players?

Back to table of contents for CableFAX: The Magazine's 2008 Most Influential Minorities in Cable issue.