New York -- When
the most recent Census numbers came out, it backed up what Hispanic programmers
have been saying for awhile -- that young Latinos are the fastest growing segment
of the population.
"We've been forecasting this was going to happen,"
said Claudia Teran, executive VP, business and legal affairs & deputy general
counsel, Fox Networks Group.
"It was an emerging growth market and now it's a mature
growth market," added Richard Buchanan, VP & GM of content services, Comcast
Media Center.
Reaching the "American Modern Latino Image" was the
main focus during the executive roundtable at B&C/Multichannel News' 10th Annual Hispanic TV Summit here on
Wednesday.
"It's the fastest growing segment of the population, who
doesn't want to go after young Latinos in this country?" asked Diana
Mogollón, GM, mun2.
"It's getting bigger, this demographic is getting
stronger," said Judi Lopez, senior VP of affiliate sales & marketing,
nuvoTV."They want to see
themselves on television in a way that they can relate." Lopez echoed arguments
made earlier in the day about the importance of showing something that is not
stereotypical and that most are now English-speaking.
"That's very different than [what] companies may think,"
added Teran, who said that roughly 60% of the U.S. Hispanic population is now U.S.
born.
"Every time the census comes out, there's like this
awakening of the market," said Lino Garcia, GM of ESPN Deportes.
"Every CEO is asking their CMO what is
their Hispanic plan." Garcia cautioned against too much optimism however,
saying that marketing towards Hispanics is still slow. He said Hispanic budgets
still account for just 5% of the overall marketplace. "The reality is that
the spending is not very proportional."
Besides being the fastest growing segment of the population,
Buchanan noted that this group is also the quickest to adopt new media
technologies. "It's getting to be ahead of the mainstream."
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