By Newsdesk

Wednesday, December 11, 2013.

Consumers from Britain’s ethnic minority groups are the keenest in Britain when it comes to embracing the latest technology, a new research reveals.

The study by Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, suggests not only do Black Britons and other ethnic minority groups say they love gadgets more than the British population as a whole (37% compared with 30%), they’re also more likely to say it’s important that their homes are equipped with the latest technology - more than one in three compared to one in five.

Ethnic minority groups are also more likely to have home broadband and a mobile phone, although they are less likely to watch TV and listen to the radio, compared to the British population as a whole.

Ofcom’s research, which supports its duty to have regard to the different ethnic communities within the UK, gives an overview of use of and attitudes towards communications services among ethnic minority groups in Britain. It compares the largest ethnic groups: Black Caribbean’, ‘Black African’, ‘Mixed Ethnic Groups’ ‘Asian Pakistani’, ‘Asian Indian’, ‘Asian Bangladeshi’, ‘and ‘Other White’ with Ethnic Minority Groups combined and the British population as a whole¹.

Mobile phones more important

Mobile phones are generally more important to people in ethnic minority groups than the wider British population. More than half of Black African (56%), the Mixed Ethnic (57%), Asian Pakistani (58%), Asian Bangladeshi (57%) and Asian Indian (54%) groups say they could not do without their mobile phones, compared with 43% of the British population.

Ethnic minority groups also tend to spend more money per month on their mobile phones. Among the Black Caribbean and Black African groups, three in ten (30%) say they spend over £30 a month on average, compared to 16% of the British population.

In the Asian Bangladeshi group, one in five (20%) claims to have at least five mobile phones in their households, compared with 5% of the British population.

Broadband take-up higher

People in the Black African group said they were the most computer-savvy, with two thirds disagreeing with the statement that computers confuse them. This compares to 53% of the British population.

Most ethnic minority groups are more likely to have a broadband connection at home, particularly among the Asian Indian group (82% compared with 71% of the British population). They’re also more likely to use the internet to download music, especially among mixed ethnic groups (45% compared with 26% of the British population).

A mixed picture for TV

TV and radio consumption varies widely across the different ethnic minority groups.  

One in five (19%) of those in the Black Caribbean group watch more than 40 hours of TV a week, compared with 15% of the British population. A quarter (26%) of the British population say that watching TV is their favourite pastime, much lower than the Asian Pakistani group (41%), Asian Indians (40%) and Asian Bangladeshis (38%).

Those in the Asian Indian group are less likely to own a TV and watch TV than the British population as a whole. Eighty-two per cent of Asian Indian people say they own a TV and 93% say that they watch TV, compared with 96% and 99% of the British population respectively.

Across all ethnic minority groups included in the research, a smaller proportion say they have a TV at home compared to the British population as a whole (90% compared to 96%). Half of those in the Asian Bangladeshi group (50%) have just one TV in their home, compared with a quarter (26%) of the British population.

More than a third of the Asian Bangladeshi and Asian Pakistani groups (36% and 35% respectively) and 30% of the Asian Indian group say that they rely on TV to keep them informed. This compares with a British average of 25%.

Larger proportions of ethnic minority groups view TV on demand on their computers and mobile phones. While fewer than one in five (18%) of the British population had used a computer to view TV on demand, as many as a quarter (25%) of the Asian Bangladeshi group said that they viewed TV in this way.

Radio less popular

Listening to the radio is generally less popular among ethnic minority groups, with 40% of Asian Bangladeshis tuning in weekly, compared with 79% of the British population. 

A third (30%) of adults in the British population say they have a DAB radio at home, compared with 7% of those in the Asian Bangladeshi group.

The Ethnic Minority Groups and Communication Services report can be found here.