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Programming, Advertising Opportunity, Audience Measurement
"It's kind of a phenomenon in the sense that our core audiences sometimes discovered Everybody Loves Raymond for the first time on Telelatino, despite the fact that it was on for eight years on CBS," says Di Felice, who adds: "It attracted a mainstream (audience) who flipped channels and have been watching Telelatino for the past year and a half."
In Canada, according to PMB stats, there are 909,000 Spanish-speaking people over the age of 12 (up from 603,000 in 2000), and 946,000 Italian-speaking people over the age of 12 (up from 788,000 in 2000).
With major US networks aiming to replicate the Hispanic TV phenomenon (witness Ugly Betty, based on Colombian telenovela Betty La Fea and airing on CityTV this fall), competition for the Spanish-speaking demo is mounting in Canada. On Oct. 4, foreign channel importer TerraTerra Communications of Montreal announced that TV Chile Internacional and Mexico's Azteca 13 Internacional are now on the air through Rogers Cable in Toronto and Videotron Cable in Montreal. The Montreal cable provider is also airing TVE Internacional, the public broadcasting network of Spain. TerraTerra chairperson/ CEO Claire Bourgeois says the channel expansion is geared "to meet the needs of the new enthusiastic and growing Hispanic market."
Another Spanish specialty channel, TV Espaņol, received CRTC approval on Sept. 28. TLN, which also runs the Super Trio Italiano (three premium digital TV channels direct from Italy: Sky TG 24, Video Italia and Leonardo World). TLN Telelatino did not attempt to intervene with the application. As competitors enter the fray and TLN navigates the ever-changing ways of audience engagement, lawyer-turned-broadcaster Di Felice says natural moves into the future include cataloguing hundreds upon hundreds of hours of VOD and Internet content and looking at other non-linear delivery methods such as mobile. Tie-ins and marketing opps will be part of the package, but he says one of TLN's most successful developments in serving marketers is live events.
This year's biggest was the second annual Hillcrest Village Salsa on St. Clair festival in Toronto, which saw the channel partner with the Hillcrest Village BIA and the City of Toronto to bring out an audience of about 250,000 on July 14 and 15. RBC had its lion mascot there, Bad Boy Furniture and Appliances had a presence, and Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation set up a lottery for an RV and had the vehicle on site for people to check out. Bell, XM Radio, Western Union and national CPG marketers (armed with samples) also got exposure. TLN partners with Paramount Canada's Wonderland for other events, and is looking to expand the live engagement approach in Montreal. Di Felice says, "It gives our clients the opportunity to engage a live audience. It's one thing to rely on post-broadcast statistics and it's another to thing to actually deliver a crowd live."
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