According to new data from the Nielsen Company, Black Americans watch more television than every other racial group.

Annually Nielsen releases its “State of the Media” report, which assesses what media consumers look like, what they’re watching, and how often. This year, the company found that African-Americans watch an average of seven hours and 12 minutes of television every single day. That’s two hours more than the overall American average of five hours and 11 minutes.

For their part, Hispanics watch TV a little more than four hours a day, which is less than whites. And the lowest viewership? Asians, who only consumed about three hours and 14 minutes a day, on average.

So what does it all mean? A lot, actually.

Firstly, it’s no wonder that whites, who are generally America’s most affluent people, are more likely to have DVR technology than everyone else. Nor is it any wonder that Hispanics are more inclined to buy satellites, which undoubtedly provide them with far more Spanish programming than basic terrestrial cable.

This also means, sadly, that African-Americans in general are spending nearly a third of their day watching television. If you consider that people spend several hours of their 24-hour day sleeping, that means it’s actually more than a third. If a Black person is awake for 18 hours, more than seven of which are spent in front of the tube, that’s nearly half their day.

A range of health problems due to poor dietary habits and substance abuse continue to afflict the Black community year after year. And while those things are bad, inactivity is also a big part of the problem. Consider that the next time you go to plop down on the couch and veg out on television.

(Photo: Chicago Tribune/MCT/Landov)