Hispanic Television: English vs. Spanish
I wanted to bring up a topic I found interesting regarding the largely growing Hispanic population in the United States and how this is affecting the television industry.
As you may know, Univision is a television network that owns and operates 18 full-power and 8 low-power stations all across the US and 2 in Puerto Rico. Univision Network is the most-watched Spanish-language broadcast
television network in the U.S. reaching 98% of U.S. Hispanic households. They dominate the Hispanic market.
Univision really takes pride on the fact that all of their television content is in Spanish.
The Hispanic population is growing rapidly. Hispanics accounted for about one-half of the national population growth of 2.9 million between July 1, 2003, and July 1, 2004. The Hispanic growth rate of 3.6 percent over the 12-month period was more than three times that of the total population (1.0 percent), according to the US Census Bureau. So this can only be good news for Univision right? You would think yes, but that may not be the case.
The issue at hand is that as the growth continues, you will begin to see more 2nd and 3rd generation television viewers. According to the US Census Bureau, 85% of Hispanics in the U.S. under the age of 19 are second or third generation whereas 60% of those over 19 are foreign-born. According to other researchers, the use of Spanish is significantly reduced in succeeding generations of immigrants.
What makes this issue more complicated is that 2nd and 3rd generations do want to be tied to their heritage and are encouraging their children to learn and use Spanish. So there is this huge gray area that researchers still need to work on.
So the Hispanic population is increasingly growing and consequently, the Hispanic television viewer percentage is growing, hands down. This sounds really great but is this the kind of data Univision should be concentrating on? Yes, they take pride in the fact they offer content only in Spanish, but is it time for a change? If it is, will Univision make that change or will they continue to strive on a solely Spanish-speaking network?
Other networks have caught on, such as SiTV. SiTV is a television network that focuses on offering Latino content but in the English language. SiTV does not have anywhere near the market share as Unvision but will they catch up to Univision? And if so, when?
My personal opinion, Univision needs to make the cross-over. If they are stubborn, they will keep it solely Spanish and other networks will catch up to them.
Regardless, the television industry among Hispanic viewers is thriving and it will be interesting to see the competition continue to fire up.
What do you think?
Useful links:
http://corporate.univision.com/corp/en/utg.jsp
http://www.everyonecounts.tv/news/UNI0607.htm
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?id=3289
http://corporate.univision.com/corp/en/pr/Los_Angeles_08102002-1.html
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6306528.html