During this year's
upfront week, the number of Spanish-language programmers presenting are
equaling the number of English ones, reports the New York
Times.
Five Hispanic
broadcasters are making their pitches to advertisers this week, the most that
ever have during "upfront" week. Fox Hispanic Media and Telemundo staged theirs
on Tuesday, Discovery U.S. Hispanic on Wednesday, and Vme and Univision set for
Thursday. Last Thursday, CNN en Espanol threw a party for advertisers in New York.
Even English
networks that market to Hispanics gave a heavy portion of their upfront to
those properties. ESPN gave a lot of attention to ESPN Deportes during their
upfont; Deportes will produce their first scripted series, El Diez
(Ten).
ABC is giving a
key role on their upcoming Charlie's Angels reboot to a Hispanic; Ramon
Rodriguez will play the role of Bosley. The network also added Héctor Elizondo
to the cast of the Tim Allen led Last Man Standing.
The increased
attention given to Spanish-language networks are due to the information released
in the 2010 Census, which showed heavy growth of Hispanic population. On
Tuesday the J.M. Smucker Company (Smucker's, Crisco, Folgers) announced it
would buy Rowland Coffee Roasters, who specialize in Hispanic-branded coffee.
