Unique approach for reaching Hispanics

'When it comes to buying an over-the-air station, there are very few of them available and they’re very costly. For that reason we thought it would be better to pursue this through access cable. If the programming is successful and the advertising numbers are good, then we might think about buying a station to diffuse our programming to a wider area.'

Unique approach
for reaching Hispanics

Tiny TVC uses Florida's public access channels

By David Everitt

    Census figures might point to a stronger ethnic presence in the American population, but new cable networks are having a hard time cashing in on the new multicultural scene.
    SiTV, a Hispanic but English-speaking venture, is still struggling to secure distribution, and NUE-TV, an African-American network, has been decimated by layoffs.
    Another venture, though, has come along on a different track, more of a grassroots approach.
    Florida-based TVC Television is leasing time on public access channels as an alternate way to create what it hopes will be a small Hispanic network.
    Public access cable isn’t usually regarded as a vehicle for ambitious broadcast ventures. Mostly it’s nothing more than a platform for community-affairs talk shows on bad sets or would-be Jimmy Swaggerts preaching to a very small flock. But TVC sees it as an opportunity to reach a niche audience and provide air time for targeted advertisers.
    Currently TVC is delivering an eight-hour block of Spanish-language, Cuban-American-oriented programming on AT&T, Charter and Adelphia systems in South Florida. The plan is to expand to other markets on a piecemeal basis.
    "Univision and Telemundo are already available in this area," says Eduardo Palmer, TVC’s deputy general manager, "but they are aimed at the Mexican-American audience.
    "We made a study of the audience here in our area and found that 53 percent of Hispanic viewers are Cuban-American, 9 percent are Puerto Rican, and Mexican-Americans only accounted for 2 percent."
    Although TVC’s core audience is Cuban-American, Palmer says that the company hopes to pull in other Hispanic viewers as well.
    The primary issue is whether a TV venture can reach a sizable ethnic audience via leased access, as opposed to over-the-air stations or standard cable networks.
    "When it comes to buying an over-the-air station," says Palmer, "there are very few of them available and they’re very costly. For that reason we thought it would be better to pursue this through access cable. If the programming is successful and the advertising numbers are good, then we might think about buying a station to diffuse our programming to a wider area."
    To one observer of the ethnic broadcasting scene, the TVC game plan is a natural response to an often-unsatisfactory media environment.
    "Part of the reason to take this kind of route is that Hispanic groups have been so unsuccessful at convincing the major networks to put on Latino programming or even feature major roles for Latinos," says Scott Gunderson-Rosa, director of communications for the League of United Latin American Citizens.
    "Efforts to create ethnic networks haven’t been too successful so far, but you can’t stop trying. You have to keep making these efforts."
    Sam Armando, assistant media director of national TV research at Starcom, believes that TVC has, if nothing else, focused on the right region.
     "South Florida certainly seems like a good market to at least test this business model and see if it can succeed."
    Ultimately, Gunderson-Rosa hopes that the unorthodox approach of TVC might lead to more mainstream success.
    "The goal is to make this kind of effort successful enough so it seems viable to the major networks so that they will become more inclusive."
    For now, at least, TVC has accomplished one thing: It has gotten its programming on the air, even if it is confined at present to one region. The schedule includes movies, soap operas, comedy, variety shows and news.
    Palmer says that spot sales have been confined so far primarily to direct advertisers. "We’ve been dealing with the business owners themselves. The advertising agencies want to see the programming first and see the impact it has on the audience before placing their budgets on a venture."
    TVC’s next target is the Orlando area on Florida’s east coast. If that expansion is successful, then TVC would look at New York and New Jersey, which, Palmer says, have a composition of nationalities similar to that of the company’s South Florida base.
    He concedes that the company has to proceed methodically. "We know that we have to crawl before we walk and walk before we run."

-David Everitt covers technology and television for Media Life, writing from Huntington, New York.

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