Related: New Hispanic Strategies Emerge
With the usage of streaming video skyrocketing, online video plays have emerged as a major distribution trend for Hispanic content. This development has been accelerated by the fact that Latinos skew younger than the general audience and are heavy users of mobile devices and other newer technologies.
Many of the video streaming options are occurring within the traditional pay-TV ecosystem, with operators like Comcast and networks like Univision dramatically expanding their streaming TV everywhere offerings. A few multichannel video providers like Dish are also targeting cord cutters with offerings like Sling TV, with more in the works. Cox, for example, has been testing a subscription OTT service called Glosi that offers exclusive and original content designed specifically for Hispanic audiences priced at $7.99 a month.
Meanwhile a number of OTT players, including FilmOn, Pangolo, Vemox and Yip TV have launched OTT packages of channels that target the Hispanic market or include a number of Spanish-language streaming options. Such services not only reflect the growing interest in streaming video; they are also providing Hispanic networks with a new way to reach Latinos outside traditional pay-TV packages.
What follows is a sample of some of those emerging OTT players and their multichannel streaming options, with information supplied by the companies:
FilmOn TV
Owner: FOTV Media Networks
Headquarters: Beverly Hills, Calif.; London
Launch year: 2007
Contact: Alki David, CEO/chief content
Officer: Kim Hurwitz, (310) 432-5384 Offering: The FilmOn platform offers more than 500 English and Spanish channels for free and over 45,000 on-demand content items; currently there are 25 Spanish-language channels and radio stations, with 250 more radio stations (27 of those in Spanish) slated to launch by the end of October.
Pongalo
Owner: Pongalo Inc. (formerly Latin Everywhere)
Headquarters: Miami Launch date: 2015
Contact: Rich Hull, executive chairman, Jorge Granier, CEO, (310) 295-7559 and info@pongalo.com
Offering: Over 15,000 hours of content anchored by the greatest classic telenovelas of all time from Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia for $5.99 a month. Pongalo also plans to use their partnership with Revolution Studios to offer more than 120 titles from their library including xXx, Black Hawk Down, Daddy Day Care and Maid in Manhattan.
Sling TV
Owner: Dish
Headquarters: Englewood, Colo.
Launch year: 2015
Contact: Roger Lynch, CEO
Offering: After merging Sling Latino into the Sling TV brand, the OTT provider now offers more than 20 channels in the Best of Spanish TV service for $10 per month as a standalone package, or $5 more per month when combined with a Sling Orange or Sling Blue service; additional Spanish-language add-ons include Caribe Extra, Sudamérica Extra and España Extra for $10 per month each as standalone packages or for $5 per month each with a subscription to Best of Spanish TV, Sling Orange, Sling Blue or Sling Orange + Sling Blue.
Vemox
Owner: Olympusat
Headquarters: West Palm Beach, Fla.
Launch year: 2016
Contact: Tom Mohler, tom@olympusat.com; Charles Mohler, chuck@olympusat.com; Chris Williams, chris@olympusat.com; Colleen Glynn, colleen@olympusat.com; Austin Powers, austin@olympusat.com; Aurora Bacquerie, aurora@olympusat.com; Jesus Pinango, jesus@olympusat.com; Seta Tokatlian seta@olympusat.com; phone: (855) 875-4383
Offering: A white-label package of channels that is being sold to operators and companies, Vemox offers over 100 live channels and thousands of movies and series On-demand in Spanish; operators brand the service and set pricing.
YipTV
Owner: YipTV, Inc.
Headquarters: West Palm Beach, Fla.
Launch year: 2015
Contact: Michael Tribolet, chairman, cofounder & CEO, (561) 914-8655
Offering: More than 100 live international channels, many of which are in Spanish, that can be accessed on up to five devices for $14.99 a month.
Source: Information about these services was collected in September 2016 by George Winslow. This list only includes those who provide several channels and excludes the Spanish-language streaming content offerings of single providers like Netflix or Hispanic TV networks like Univision. The list is not intended to offer a complete directory of all the various OTT packages available to U.S. Hispanics.
