LATV SETS ITS SIGHTS ON MORE THAN HISPANICS

LATV is a 24/7 digital broadcast network filled with lively music and lifestyle programming and aimed primarily at young Hispanics—Spanish and English speakers.

But the diginet’s ambitions stretch far beyond the 12.1 million Hispanic TV homes. It won’t be satisfied until it’s on the air in all 210 markets and reaches each and every one of America’s 113 million TV homes.

“We’re not stopping till we get 100 percent of this country,” says President and COO Howard Bolter.

“LATV is bilingual and bi-cultural. It appeals to people who like that cool, Latin, youth-oriented programming,” he says.

But first things first—those Hispanic homes.

The immediate goal is to line up digital broadcast affiliates in the top 10 Hispanic market within the next three or four months and in the top 25 by the end of the year.

The goal sounds doable.

According to Bolter, it’s already in five of the top 10 Hispanic markets—Los Angeles; Miami; Houston; San Antonio; and Harlingen, Texas—and it is close deals that would give it four of the other five: New York, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco. One may pop later this week.

Altogether, LATV is now in 18 markets and reaches nine million households, of which 3.5 million are Hispanic.

If all goes well, the numbers will rise to 22 million total homes, (five million Hispanic) by July, and 37 million total homes (8.5 million Hispanic) by the end of the year.

LATV launched itself as a broadcast network a year ago after six years of incubation at KJLA Los Angeles, owned by Walter Ulloa, CEO of Entravision.

It was Post-Newsweek Stations that really propelled LATV from local station to national network, agreeing to carry the service on its stations in four key Hispanic markets—Houston (KPRC), Miami (WPLG), Orlando (WKMG) and San Antonio (KSAT).

Post-Newsweek underscored its commitment to the network last summer by taking an equity stake in it.

In this interview with TVNEWSDAY Editor Harry A. Jessell, Bolter explained why it’s time for broadcasters to quit wondering what to do with their spare digital capacity and seize the LATV opportunity.

An edited transcript follows:

So what make you think you can turn this into a general-interest network and get 100 percent broadcast distribution?

We don’t see our programming as being that niche or that targeted. We think it’s available to anyone. People who are not necessarily bilingual enjoy all of or a lot of the programming.

We’ve always seen this as something of interest to everybody and that’s been born out by our affiliates in Pocatello, Idaho, and Jacksonville, Fla. They come in and say, “You know what, we may not have the largest Hispanic audience for you, but we’re getting a good reaction everywhere we go.”

When  you’re out selling to broadcasters, do you find yourself going head to head with RTN, the other big third-party diginet?

We haven’t run into them, but we know that they’re going after the same spectrum in some cases. It hasn’t really been an issue.

We’re really competing with whatever might come next. People from some stations are holding back waiting to see what other opportunities are going to present themselves.

One of our biggest challenges is convincing people that, hey, we’re here, we’re ready, we’ve got compelling programming, we’ve got something for you to put on now and start making some money.

So your big competitor is the hope of something better.

I would say that’s true.

What’s the basic deal for the affiliates?

They get five minutes per hour of time—half the ad time—to sell.

No cash changes hands?

No cash changes hands. They also get three hours of overnight for paid programming, and we provide a half-hour local window seven days a week at 6:30 [p.m. ET] for any kind of locally compatible programming that they want to put in there.

So they can throw a newscast in there if they want.

Exactly. And, like a cable network, we cover everything. We cover that half hour if they don’t want to use it for local programming. And there’s programming overnight if they don’t cover it with paid programming. The network is delivered 24/7.

Do the affiliates have to get cable carriage? Is that part of the deal?

Yes. They do have to get cable carriage.

Are you getting ratings anywhere?

We get overnights in Los Angeles because we run on a primary channel part of the time in addition to 24/7 on the digital channel. We have gotten as high as a 1.0 on occasion. We did this week, as a matter of fact.

Originally this network was supposed to be a cable network. What happened to that plan? Why the shift in strategy?

I came on at the end of that strategy so I wasn’t part of that, but I can tell you that this became a better option because of the nature of the programming and the nature of the distribution. Being able to start out with targeted distribution and then grow to the rest of the country actually became a better option.

I don’t see how it can be a better option if you’re foregoing any opportunity for license fees.

Well, those opportunities were not available.

People might conclude that you took it out to cable, cable rejected it and then you went to broadcast as Plan B.

Let me put it this way: cable operators always wanted to put it on the Hispanic tier and we really feel that this is much a broader product.

I see. This is your chance to be a full-blown network in 200 markets with full penetration.

That’s right. Otherwise we could have ended up on select cable systems on Hispanic tiers next to Spanish-only. We couldn’t reach a critical mass under that scenario. Under the broadcast scenario, not only do we get a broader viewership, we can get to a broader marketplace.

Has the programming evolved since you made the decision a year ago to take this out as a diginet.

Yes. We started adding more entertainment life-style programming to what was primarily a music-based channel. Because of the biculturalism, because we’re now going after a broader marketplace, the programming has evolved.

So what’s primetime looking like these days?

We have recently hired a new VP of programming, Luca Bentivoglio, so you should look for some exciting changes in the network come March. The lineup will have proven favorites and new, very innovative programming.

We are currently running a fair amount of music videos, along with a comedy block of two completely original animated programs. We are also airing the best of LATV Central, our entertainment lifestyle show, and En Concierto, our in-studio original concert series. We also have added a unique live text chat overlay to some of our music video product. All our music video blocks are fresh each week and reflect the music our viewers are interested in.

What’s the threshold at which you can start attracting some national advertisers?

Believe it or not, we’re out there starting to get some national advertising. It’s a combination of finding the programs they’re interested in, along with the reach. The addition of American Latinos is really going to help us a lot because that reaches 92 percent of the Hispanic market through syndication. Now we’ll be able to attract advertisers by giving the reach on our syndicated product along with frequency on our network.

Let’s talk about the purchase of American Latino TV. Is that a separate business from the network?

It’s an additional business, yes. It’s completely compatible, although the programming is not bilingual. It is all in English. It goes to more than 100 general market stations and reaches more than 92 percent of the Hispanic market.

It gives us the potential to take our programming off the network into that space to get more visibility. We also got a six-year library of programming—American Latino and Latin Nation, two different half hour products that we are going to use for our online offering and some other secondary products.

So you don’t see American Latino TV as a production arm for the network.

We do see ALTV as an extension to the network’s existing production unit. We intend to take advantage of ALTV's New York location to expand the network production. In the same manner, ALTV will now be able to take advantage of the LATV production facilities in Los Angeles to expand the look of American Latino TV and LatiNation.

The combined production assets will enrich both the network and syndicated shows just like our affiliate relationships have added to our network programming by co-producing segments with them. In fact, ALTV is in the process of hiring an LA-based segment producer for the first time.

I would imagine that the involvement of Post-Newsweek has given you a tremendous amount of your credibility among the other broadcasters.

It has been a big help and they’ve been a very supportive partner. The stations have been extremely supportive of the launch and they do a lot of promotion. In Miami, they do an LATV news break during their shows. They do a beach reports, they do sports reports. Talent from the primary channel appears on the digital channel.

I take it that your other affiliates are also using their main channels to promote LATV.

Actually, they’re required to.

So that’s a second affiliate requirement—main channel promotion.

Yes. It’s to their advantage as it is to ours. They’re selling the time and they need to get people over there to sell the time.

Do Hispanic homes tend to overindex or underindex in off-the-air reception?

That’s a tough question. I don’t know that anybody really knows the answer. We are not really sure and I don’t think Nielsen is really sure of that answer either. You can read reports that say both things.

But you believe that over-the-air is an important piece of your strategy?

We are strong believers that over-the-air digital is a great way for us to reach our audiences. We believe in the digital multicast philosophy.

What about satellite? Are you trying to get on Echostar and Direct TV?

Yes we are. We have had conversations, but we have no deals in place.

Is there anything else that you would like to say to lure broadcasters into your booth at NATPE.

My comment to them is 2009 is fast approaching. Take a look at what the opportunities are. This is a network that’s been on the air locally in Los Angeles for six years and been successful. Now, it’s going nationwide and there’s a great opportunity for any station out there that hasn’t settled on a digital strategy.