Through the employment of a uses and gratifications approach, a study examined the heterogeneity within a sample of black television viewers as revealed in their needs structures and their demographic characteristics. The purpose was to determine if differences in black audience needs could be associated with differences in television program viewing, and further to determine if those needs were more important than demographics in explaining variance in television viewing. Incorporated into the methodological design were data from an 1980 study on the public's use of television conducted by R.E. Frank and M.G. Greenberg. The analyses revealed that the need factors of personal identification, learning, communication/social utility, and diversion were to be active and in common significance within a majority of program types. The overall predictive ability of needs to mediate and guide television program preferences, with the exception of learning, proved to be of little significance. The demographic variables of sex, age, education, situation, and occupation, on the other hand, proved to be of greater significance as predictors of television program preferences. (HOD)