new channel

Will Fusion by ABC & Univision Flourish or Flop?

By in Cositas Latinas, Entertainment, News/Politics 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

fusion network abc univision juanofwords

Will ABC & Univision find success in Fusion?

So it’s official.  There’s now an estimated date for when Univision and ABC’s new joint venture – the Fusion network (they have a name for it too now) – will be on the air.  According to the two major US networks by the end of this summer is when we should expect to see Fusion on air.  Pero before then look for Fusion to hit the web and probably all of social media in the months leading up to it’s grand inauguration.  The question now, very appropriately raised by the New York Times this week, is will this network actually have an audience?

Will Fusion be successful?

If you’ll recall, this new network is being billed as a 24 hour news and entertainment channel for English speaking Latinos in the United States.  En efecto it will be one more channel in the pool of hundreds of other selections already out there that will attempt to pull in US Latinos by offering more Hispanic-infused content in English rather than Spanish.  It’s the first such venture for both ABC and Univision, pero as some experts are already pointing out in order for it to be successful Fusion will need to pull in more than only a US Latino audience.

“This audience identifies as Americans first,” said Larry Lubin, co-founder and president of Lubin Lawrence Inc., a brand consultancy that advised both companies, to the New York Times.  He also stressed that the venture needed to broaden its appeal.  “The brand will be a failure if it only appeals to Latinos.”

As far as what type of content we should expect from Fusion here’s what Isaac Lee, president of Univision News, told the Times:

Fusion will broadcast unscripted series and specials, all with a Latino slant. Mr. Lee pointed to series like National Geographic’s “Locked Up Abroad” about tourists who end up in foreign prisons, as the type of documentary series he hoped the channel would do. Extensive news coverage in collaboration with ABC News will revolve around the interests of Latinos. Coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation, for instance, would focus on potential Latin American candidates to succeed him, Mr. Lee said.

It still sounds like a gamble to me, but I am honestly intrigued by this new venture.  What about you?  Will you give Fusion a chance?  Do you have any suggestions for the new network?  Share them with Fusion here.

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Forbes Explores ‘The Next Media Jackpot’: US Latinos

By in Cositas Latinas, Culture, Entertainment, Lifestyle, News/Politics 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Forbes The Next Media Jackpot

Who will conquer the Next Media Jackpot?

We’ve been writing about it for a while, and now, it looks like the stage is finally set for a battle royal between all of the major players seeking to take the biggest bite out of the reported $1 trillion US Hispanic market.  There’s ABC and Univision, Telemundo, Comcast, MundoFox, and even Sofia Vergara, the highest paid television actress at the moment, and they’re all featured in Forbes latest issue – ‘The Next Media Jackpot: The Fight For The $1 Trillion Hispanic Market.’

It’s really quite the interesting article, which ultimately, for me, makes it perfectly clear that none of these major players know for certain that their latest efforts will be fruitful… or even successful.  Hagan de cuenta that they’re all digging for gold and at this point it could be anyone’s game.  Times are definitely a changing folks!

Here are a couple of the most insightful quotes from the article:

“There’s a misconception that this is an easy-to-reach segment because they have fewer and more contained options to them… You almost need to think of it as the opposite. The reality is that Hispanic Americans have more options than any other consumer. They have options that make any consumer’s head spin, and what happens at that point is good TV just becomes good TV.” - Monica Gadsby, CEO of SMG Multicultural, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group advertising and marketing agency

“I have five children, and even though they’re bilingual, there’s nothing on TV that represents who they are and what they can be inspired by.” – Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez

“I don’t think you can talk about the ‘Big Four’ networks anymore when we (Univision) beat NBC 195 nights out of the year last year in prime time.” – Univision CEO Randy Falco

“The Hispanic ­market is no longer being viewed as a niche, minority market for a lot of companies… It’s becoming a fairly major part of the mainstream, and it’s helping to reshape the overall ­universe of consumers in a way that’s a bit surprising to people.” - Alex Ruelas, cofounder of the Austin-based ­marketing agency LatinWorks

Read the article in it’s entirety at Forbes.com.

Should the Big Spanish Networks be Afraid of MundoFox?

By in Cositas Latinas, Culture, Entertainment, Lifestyle, News/Politics 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Their commercial certainly is sexy.   And, of course, when we all hear there will be another new Spanish-language television network for the US Hispanic market, we can’t help but be a little curious.  At least I am.  But when August comes around and somebody officially says “let’s get ready to rumble!” – at least in my head that’s how it would go down – will MundoFox really be any threat to any of the Big Spanish-language networks?

mundofox new spanish language network august

Can MundoFox really compete with the big Spanish-language networks?

Sure, they’ve got pretty legitimate backing, considering the new network is a partnership between Colombia’s RCN and News Corp, the world’s second-largest media group as of 2011, which owns and operates the existing FOX networks.  And according to Ad Age Media News, they’ve already garnered the support of major advertisers like Toyota, T-Mobile and L’Oreal, but what about their programming?  Can it capture existing Univision and Telemundo viewers?  Can it captivate “Americanos como tu“?  You know, those of us who are bicultural and bilingual, who can identify both as Latino (from whatever country of origin we can trace our roots to) and American, simultaneously and independently, without even blinking.

I have to say, after reading about the “new” programming MundoFox  will be offering, next month,  I’m not really impressed.  The lineup includes dubbed into Spanish reruns of shows like 24 and Bones, as well as repeats of major hits in Spanish like Kadabra and El Capo.  Telenovelas will also be a part of the network’s regular programming – albeit in shorter compilations of 80 episodes instead of the traditional 120.  Eventually, network execs say, the plan is to produce original content straight from Colombia, using RCN’s existing studio and production resources.  That’s probably when we’ll see any real competition from MudoFox.

In the meantime, here’s what the new network’s president Emiliano Saccone had to say about their programming: “The daily nature of the telenovelas will be critical to any Spanish-language broadcaster for many years to come… It’s not going away.  However, in this day and age, if you’re going to ask a viewer to commit to a show five nights a week, you have to win over both the male and female viewers in the house.  Long gone are the days when you needed to get the female hooked on the telenovelas and the male eventually gave in.”

Whatever the outcome of this new venture, MundoFox will become the first new broadcast network in the US since UPN and the WB were merged into the CW in 2006.  When it is officially launched, MundoFox will have access to 75 percent of US Hispanic households.  Well… por lo menos the US Hispanic market is being paid more attention to.  Now let’s just translate that into better and more opportunities for our talent as well!

What do Latinos Want on New ABC-Univision News Network?

By in Cositas Latinas, Culture, Entertainment, Lifestyle, News/Politics 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Soon there will be a new news network in town.  As you’ve probably already heard, Univision and ABC have decided to come together to create a brand new television channel that will cater specifically to one demographic and one demographic alone.  English-speaking Latinos who prefer to obtain their news en ingles rather than español.  While the project sounds incredibly interesting, it also begs the question what exactly to these English-speaking Latinos want?  Do we really need another news channel dedicated only to Latino news?

latino news network abc univision

Do we want to see ourselves in this new venture?

Myself, I don’t really watch the news much these days.  Except for CNN, most of the news I consume comes from the internet.  More specifically from social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.  There’s a certain control in knowing that the power is in my hands to decide what I do want to watch and when.  Today, for example, me perdi JLO’s performance on American Idol, but as soon as I got home I watched it on YouTube.  Her entire participation on Q’Viva The Chosen still shows up crystal clear on my Univision app.  I don’t even have to watch the stinking commercials if I don’t want to!

What makes these shows addicting for me – more so Q’Viva than Idol – is that they are innovative in their own right.  No longer are we watching the Puerto Rican cashier on South Central, the Mexican housemaid or nanny taking care of children and homes that are not her own, the shady Latino who’s always up to no good on TV dramas and film.  There’s a deeper connection with the Latinos on screen these days.  They’re spicing up scripts and transcripts with Spanglish and Spanish.  They’re talking about and starring alongside families like our own.  A few – i.e. Jenni Rivera – are even opening up the same kinds of businesses we might have had or wanted to have one day.  You can’t buy that type of connection!  Okay, that one could just be me since my family also owned a taco truck once upon a time.

So how does that translate to the news we consume?

I honestly don’t know.  What I do know is that whatever consumption we will be expected to partake in should reflect, more and more on an increasing level, who we are as a people and a community.  There aren’t really any hard and fast rules, but it’s nice to know the big players are willing to at least try.

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