10

MAY 16. 2005

MULTICHANNEL News

Enhancing the Hispanic Bundie Options

Operators Try Varied Approaches to Reach a Diverse Demo

lingual CSRs.
And Cox deploys I lispanic installers and can bill or commuBY MIKE REYNOLDS
nicate in the language through
its Website.
NEW YORK Reflective of the
Rooney also continues to
many segnierils williin the
aim at Hispanic households
overall Spanish-speaking conithrougb sucb tactics as direct
niunily. cable companies conmail and grassroots initiatives,
tinue to iry various marketincluding liaving a presence at
ing and pricing approaches to
some 85 events this year.
reach out to this highly diversiBob Watson, vice presified group.
dent of progratnming and
"It's not one size fits all,"
Time Warner Cable's Bob
Joe Rooney, senior vice presi- Watson and Si TV's Jeff Valdez Cox's Joe Rooney said of
new business development for
marketing to Latinos.
dent of marketing at Cox Com- on the Horowitz panel.
Time Warner Cable New York
munications Inc., speaking
City, discussed having a preson a panel last Tuesday at the customers" by offering "min- Galavision. Reaching 94% of His- ence at some 120 street fairs in
I {orowitz & Associates's 5th an- utes to tlieir country of origin. panics households in the U.S., the Big Applf through OctobL>r.
nual Forum; Slate of Cable and We're taking a run at the call- Univision is clearly an important Opportunities to demonstrate
Broadband here, said when it ing-card business."
vehicle to reach tbis group.
product is important in neighcomes to marketing to Latinos,
borhoods, he said.
"it's not one-size-fits-all."
Retail presences are also viSo Cox offers various bundles "We're looking to re-architecture the system
tal, and Time Warner works
of video, high-speed Internet to increase bandwidth. Maybe within six
with national chains like Best
atid voice offerings. The MSO
Buy Stores Inc., plus showcasis also selling a value-priced months, we can offer in-language movies on
es HDTV and high-speed ofdata package, proffering less V O D . " BOB WATSON, nme WamerCabie
ferings to Hispanics and otber
spoed and aimed at "unassimconsumers at regional outlets
ilated" Latinos with budgetary
like P.C. Richard & Son.
ciinstraiiitsRooney said Cox has been
But Cox's acquisition efWatson said Time Warner
working successfully with Uni- forts marked the first time the continues to look at more opTAILORED MINUTES
vision since last September, broadcaster bad permitted portunities to broaden its "DTV
As part (if the telephony pitch running ads touting Spanish- such messaging. Viewers dial en Espanol" package, particuto Latinos, Cox is now trying language packages, including up a toll free number and talk larly by adding programming
to be "really relevant to these Univision-owned cable network with Spanish-speaking or bi- that appeals to tbe large num-

ber of people in the market wbo

trace their ancestry to Puerto
Rico and the Dominican Republic.
BROADENING VOO

Later this year, Watson said tbe

system hopes to offer a wider
swath of on-demand movies
aimed at Hispanics and other
ethnic groups.
All customers in Manhattan,
Brooklyn and Queens currently pull down a total of 17 million on-demand video streams
a month, Watson said. "We're
looking to re-architecture tlie
system to increase bandwidth.
Maybe within six months, we
can offer more in-!anguage
movies on VOD," he said.
Jeff Valde/., chairman of S\
TV, the Englisb-language Latino network that also aims at
young-adult urban viewers,
sees more opportunities with
VOD, following a recent tlireemonth test witb Time Warner
enable Los Angeles in which the
service ranked ninth out of 32 in
terms of usage. Valdez said SI TV
was accelerating plans fora national VOD strategy as a uieans
to stoke awareness and viewersbip for tbe service.

RESEARCH

Multilingual Marketing's a Challenge

BY MIKE REYNOLDS

cussed the resuits at its 5"' Annual forum: State of

Cable and Broadband at the Marriott Marquis Hotel here on May 10.
"Obviotisly, tbere is a growing amount of programtiling being aitned at Latinos and Asian-Americans,"
Waterston said. "Witb bandwidth limited, there appears to be opportunities for cable operators to reach
these otber people througb video-on-demand offering from programmer like TVS from France, or with
Italian orCerman fare."
Study results also revealed vast differences in

More than one-1 bird of bousebolds in

urban markets are multilingual, a situation tbat provides both challenges and tipportunities to programmers trying to reach these residents.
According to findings from "State of Broadband Urban Markets VI," 36% of urban dwellings are home
to at least one person who's fluent in a language other than r.tiglish. Research from I lorowitz Associates,
Inc. showed multilingualism occurs not only in
Latino and Asian-American families, but with
Favorite Latino Programming Genres
Whites and African-Americans as well.
NEW YORK

SOAPS VS. SITCOMS

Mosi Frequently viewed Every day/Almost every day

SURPRISING DEPTH

People wlio can speak more than one language

were found in 82% of Hispanic and 74% of
Asian homes. More surprisingly, the Horowitz
research indicated that 18% of Caucasian and
15% of African American hotiseholds included
someone fluent in another tongue.
"It's not only Latino and Asian-American
urban homes where people are multilingual.
Tbere are people from Africa and tbe islands
and liurope tbat continue to speak their native languages," said Adriana Waterston, director of marketing and business development
at Larchmont. N.Y.-based Horowitz, which dis-

S[>ani&h-preferred
News
91%
Soap opeias
54%
Programs for
children

54%

Movies
Documentaries
Sport events
Entertainment'
^psslp shows
Nature shows
Sports news

47%
40%

36";.
35%
35%
33%

Bilingual

English)-oriented

News
Movies

83%

Sports events
Nature shows
Comedies/
sttcoms
Programs for
children
Documentaries
Sports news
Drama series
MUSIC videos

49%

of B r o a A a n d Uibdn M.<ih>'i> VI

52%

45%

41%
40%
40"^
397,
37"/o
36%

News
Movies
Comedies/
sitcoms
Programs tor
children
Drama series
Cooking/ Home
imp
Sports news

terms of programming preferences among urban

households.
For instance, while whites (78%), blacks (75%) and
Asian-Americans (71%) all listed news as the programming genre they viewed each day or virtually
every day, the former has a high interest in cooking
and home fare (25%). Ihat type of progratnming did
not rate highly with the others.
Documentaries, oti the other hand, are viewed
more frequently by Asian-Americans (20%).

76%
38%
36%

32%

28%
27%

27%

Among Hispanic bousebolds, those categorized

as "Spanish-preferred" lor language opt much
more often for soap operas or novelas (54%),
compared with bilingual homes, where comedies and sitcoms (41%) are viewed more regularly. As for r.nglish-oriented Latino households, cooking/bome fare (27%) rank amotig
their favorite types of shows (see chart).
Waterston said cable operators sbotild consider the types of hotnes in the urban neighborhoods they serve and such programming preferences when assembling and offering various
in-ianguage packages.
Study results were collated from 1,600 interviews: 400 white, 450 African-American, 450
Latino and 300 Asian-American household respondents.