New York -- Dave Shull, executive VP and chief commercial
officer for Dish Network, outlined the marketing strategy for his company
when it comes to multiethnic consumers.
"Connect your family to your own country," he
said. "It's [about] how you reach them when they come together as a
community."
Shull made those remarks during his keynote conversation
with Multichannel News editor-in-chief Mark Robichaux at B&C/Multichannel's
first annual Multiethnic TV Awards on Wednesday.
"It's not just the shows, it's also the branded
channels," continued Shull. "The one thing that cuts across all these
different demographics is: connect yourself back to your home."
Shull said that millions of his customers are primarily
non-English speaking. He said Dish has about 268 different channels in 29
different language groups. "The 2010 census opened a lot of people's
eyes," said Shull. "There is tremendous growth in the non-English
speaking market."
He listed the top five non-Hispanic, non-English markets in
the U.S. as Chinese, South Asia, Arabic, Pilipino and Vietnamese. Those make up
about 4.2 million households, which represent 15 million Americans.
While Dish boasts a large multiethnic customer base, Shull
pointed out that "roughly half" of it is either
"second-generation" or in a place where English is common.
"There's a lot of money in the market," he said.
"We remain very bullish."
Shull said that the influx of immigrants into the United
States has shifted his consumer base younger, and like the youth demos in
America, these customers have adapted to being able to watch TV wherever and
whenever they want.
"We want to make sure we're reaching these customers on
the ITV products they're used to," he said, before noting that most of
their international content is available on the DishWorld platform.
"From an international base, it's the same
thing [as Americans]."
