Tom Maney senior VP of ad sales for Fox Sports en Español is quick to make nice comments about his staff, clients and even competitors. Maney is not the stereotypical arm-twisting, testosterone-soaked network sales executive. Instead, according to a number of Hispanic media buyers, he prefers to kill you with kindness. One buyer half-seriously complained "just imagine how hard it is to tell him ‘No.’ "
Maney has been in the business for 20 years and his father worked for Metromedia. Hispanic Television Update spoke to Maney about the upfront, new platforms and the Nielsen Television Index. An edited transcript follows:
Q: Aside from the television channel what new platforms is Fox Sports en Español using?
A: We offer VOD via Comcast. It is so new. We are gathering data and we find that there is pretty significant demand within the Hispanic market for viewing the big sports events we carry. We are very excited to continue learning more about this and learn how to integrate VOD into our total sell. It is very much in line with looking at distributing our content through multiple platforms.
Q: Given the strong numbers for Hispanic VOD what is keeping advertisers from getting into that specific market?
A: You’ve seen over the last five years the tremendous growth in revenue online. One of the key things for the acceleration of online revenue was the [development] of a metrics of value. ComScore and others are providing metrics that the media buying community can use to quantify the value. That is an important step in any media. In some of these other spaces, such as VOD or wireless, how do you put a value to that message? The market is definitely embracing the technology. Smart agencies and clients are experimenting. What really has to happen is the market needs to establish a metrics of value and an estimate of the [return on investment]. That process will continue as we all learn to grow these secondary or tertiary media platforms.
Q: What’s your overall outlook going into the upfront?
A: I see a strong new business pool. More and more clients are moving into Spanish-language television. Broadcast is usually your first step and some are looking at adding Spanish-language cable. Spanish-language cable is generating a 14 share of total viewership 18 to 49. As cable grows buyers will shift dollars to follow the viewing. I think it is going to be a great upfront for the cable industry. Every year it outperforms.
Q: What do you make of NTI?
A: I’ve compared the NTI to NHHI [Nielsen’s Spanish-language cable measurement service] and the numbers in the broad dayparts are extremely consistent within a 3% variation. The reason we are not migrating is purely as a result of the ad community saying you can stay with NHHI for this upfront. No one is asking us to use NTI and I am in the process of renewing the NHHI contract for another year. I think most agencies are going to use NHTI for this upfront.
