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The Latino shift towards cable TV

13:06 H | Topics: Bilingualism - Marketing - TV

Who knew when we were growing up and cable first burst onto the scene that twenty years later not only would we have a over ten news channels on "basic" cable, but we would also have a Spanish-language version of almost every channel available for purchase? CNN en español. ESPN en español. Discovery en español. The list goes on and on, but these bigger name channels are only the beginning. Now, not only are big names like MTV and HBO looking to replicate their mainstream market channel models in the Latino market, but there are more and more original programming concepts being thrown into the mix. According to the Miami Herald:

General-interest Spanish-language broadcasters will continue to dominate ratings and advertising sales well into the future, said Leland Westerfield, managing director of Harris Nesbitt, but the growth of niche channels such as SiTV, CasaClubTV, ESPN Deportes and others is poised to take off.

"The vast majority of Hispanic households will be receiving television through cable by the end of the decade," Westerfield told the audience at the Hispanic Television Summit..."This reminds me of where the [general] market was in the late '80s, early '90s."

And the prediction is that this trend will only grow:

During the past year, some two dozen cable channels aimed at Hispanics, in both English and Spanish, have sprung up with special-interest programming ranging from travel and home to youth and automotive.

Westerfield said more Hispanics will sign up for cable and satellite simply because "there's a hunger for culturally-relevant programming. There is ample demand among viewers for choice of programming."

One thing to keep in mind is that this growth cannot be attributed solely to high demand on the part of Latino television viewers. It's also because advertisers are falling over themselves to market to Latinos and are forever clammering for new outlets by which to do this. Money being pumped into these networks by advertisers is what has truly made this shift possible. Want to market to Latino tweens? We got a channel for you. What about Latino automotive aficionados? Ford, step right up.

In this day in age, if Latinos are going to consume it, marketers are ready to fling their dollars at it. The question used to be, "how many channels do we really need?" Now, it's how many channels in Spanish do we really need? At some point burnout will be reached. I've gotten to that point with cable TV, and I'm sure it will happen to viewers of Spanish-language programming in the future as well.

Via / The Miami Herald and Hispanic Business

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