LatinaLista — There’s a new television show specifically targeting Latinos, and it’s not on Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura or Galavision (some of the more widely known Spanish-language cable channels.)
It’s a community service program titled “Worcester Latino” and it airs on Charter Communications cable television channel WCTR — in ingles.
Worcester Latino, though locally produced, joins but a handful of new television programming that is targeting Latinos who spend their days speaking more English than Spanish.
Some production companies recognized this budding trend among U.S. Latinos and decided not to wait for mainstream corporate USA to act on it. Companies like Si TV, who back in 1997, saw the disinterest many second and third generation Latinos had for Spanish-language programming, and decided to be among the first to create shows featuring Latino characters and which has since evolved into a full-fledged production company;
Aim Tell-A-Vision Group recognized the need English-speaking Latinos had for programming we could call our own and created
shows that answered that need. In the process, the CEO of Aim TV, Robert G. Rose, discovered that something was horribly wrong with the way Nielsen Media Research measures Latino viewers — they don’t distinguish between U.S.-born Latinos and non-native born Latinos. That little detail makes a big impact on which shows are recorded as the most popular among Hispanics.
So, Rose is publicly challenging Nielsen with his Change the Sample campaign. By circulating a petition to call on Nielsen to adjust their methodology for measuring Hispanic viewers, he hopes to show the true reality of viewing habits among U.S.-born Latinos;
And finally, an emerging player in the field of targeting English-speaking Latinos is a multimedia company called VOY.
Mixing social networking with user-generated videos and traditional programming, VoyTV — an internet-based broadband channel, is the latest offering from VOY. In addition to allowing users to post their own films, the online channel has original programming like “VOY Filmmaker Showcase – highlights the best short films, music videos and commercials made by Latinos or featuring Latinos. LatinEyes – a licensed broadcast magazine show, focuses on Latin culture in the U.S. and abroad. VOY to Hollywood – features celebrity interviews, featurettes and behind-the-scenes news on movies and shows that interest Latinos.”
Voy is not a marketing concept but an organic reflection of what Latinos are dealing with today across the country,” said CEO of VOY Fernando Espuealas to Latina Lista. “In the media landscape, there isn’t an accurate reflection of who we are as Americans who happen to be Latin.
We call these U.S.-born, predominantly English — the Next Generation Latino.”
It’s a generation that has already arrived. The only difference is that those who have noticed this arrival, like the Fernando Espuelas and Robert Rose’s of the media industry, are doing something about it.
The time for talk is over.
It’s time for lights, camera, ACTION — Chicas!!
