What Digital Divide? Some Surprising Results in New Study

James Gattuso writes:  "Claims that new video competitors will 'redline' — i.e. avoid building out in selected inner-city or minority areas — remain a major stumbling block to video franchise reform in Congress. ...¶  But do providers really have an incentive to redline? Certainly there are economic reasons not to build everywhere at once, but race or geography may have little to do with it. According to a just-released survey by Steve Pociask’s American Consumer Institute, African-Americans may be more profitable customers for video providers than others. At 78 percent, the total African-American subscription rate is one point above the national average. More striking, almost half of those subscribers are signed up for premium channels, compared to 31 percent overall. And a quarter of African-American subscribers have used pay per view features in the past six months, compared to only 19 percent of all cable subscribers. ..."  Link:  The Technology Liberation Front.