Warm welcome for new Hispanic net

NATPE: Market analysts and delegates here have reacted positively to MundoFox, the new US Hispanic channel unveiled by Fox International Channels (FIC) and Colombia’s RCN TV yesterday.

“The Spanish-language market is among the fastest growing in the US,” said Brad Adgate, senior VP and director of research at Horizon Media. “It typically has a larger family size than other segments of the population and its median age is about 10 years younger than ‘whites’”.

“Ad dollars continue to migrate to content providers targeting Latinos so while becoming increasingly crowded it’s a sound business decision to launch a new network.”

Over at MediaLink, chairman and CEO Michael Kassan said: “As the 2010 Census so dramatically demonstrated, the Hispanics’ impact on the marketplace and society continues to expand. They are a vital part of any marketer’s US mix. And although the Hispanic ad market now totals over US$4bn in annual ad spend, there’s still plenty of room for growth. MundoFox is a smart response to an impressive opportunity.”

Also commenting on the news, Adriana Cisneros, vice chairman and VP of strategy at Cisneros Group, welcomed the new arrival, saying: “It means more competition but competition is good.” Cisneros programming airs on Univision, which MundoFox has been launched to compete with.

Explaining the move, FIC president and CEO Hernan Lopez said: “There is an increasing demand for quality Spanish-language content in the US from both viewers and advertisers.” Lopez sealed the 50/50 joint-venture with RCN CEO Gabriel Reyes.

RCN and FIC executives have been presenting the new network to potential affiliates here at Natpe, intending to launch the channel this fall in Hispanic homes nationwide.

Speaking to C21, Emiliano Saccone, president of entertainment at FIC Latin America and FIC’s exec VP of scripted content, said the reaction from potential affiliates this week has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

The plan is to focus on the markets with the biggest Hispanic populations, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New York and Texas, he added. “Ideally, we’d like to launch with MundoFox cleared in 75% of the country.

RCN’s content includes El Capo and Yo soy Betty la Fea, upon which Ugly Betty was based, and its shows will go to MundoFox as its licences with other US networks, such as Univision’s TeleFutura, expire.

As for opportunities for third-party content on MundoFox, Saccone said only between 5% and 10% of the grid would be from outside FIC and RCN’s libraries. “We’ll mostly be looking to acquire films.”