Demographic Details
Two pros in the know square off on the future of Hispanic media.
By: Sandra Hernandez

As the number of Hispanics living in the U.S. grows, so does interest in what Latinos are watching. The debate over the future of Hispanic media is getting intense so we turned to Jose Cancela and Jeff Valdez, two insiders, to give their perspective on what is in store for Hispanic media.

Cancela has a 25-year history as a media executive, including stints at Univision, Telemundo and most recently, Radio Unica. (Billed as the nation’s first Spanish- language radio network, it folded in 2003.) The Cuban-born Cancela tried his hand at politics, failing in a bid to become Miami-Dade County mayor in 2004. He is currently the brains and money behind Hispanic USA, a Miami-based Latino marketing firm he launched in February 2005.

Jeff Valdez is the co-founder of SíTV, the English language cable channel launched in 2004. The channel is targeting Generation N, or hip 20-something Hispanics who speak English. The former standup comedian turned producer created Nickelodeon’s The Brothers Garcia. Born in Colorado, Valdez is targeting Latinos who consider English their language of choice.

Who are you going after? Who do you think makes up the Hispanic viewing audience?

Valdez: My primary audience is the 18 to 34-year-old Hispanics who are English dominant and bilingual. That is our primary market. Our secondary market is really multiculturals who are 18-to 34-years-old. Now, that includes blacks, Asians, and everyone else. We represent a multicultural audience.

Cancela: Don’t expect too many fireworks. We aren’t going to disagree. ... One of the primary markets obviously I represented over the years has been the Spanish-dominant Hispanics that are the base of Hispanic America.

What are your thoughts on the current debate about the future of Hispanic viewers? Some argue that English language is the future while others argue that Spanish is the language of choice to draw viewers.

Valdez: We have to stop using the versus model. This isn’t a football game of the Miami Dolphins versus the New York Giants.

Cancela: I totally agree with that. Valdez: The market is both. The 25-50-25 model is what launched SíTV. The reality is we can argue that Hispanic viewers are 25 percent Spanish-dominant, 50 percent bilingual and 25 percent English-dominant. For years, the Spanish media has been saying 75 percent of Hispanics speak Spanish. I’m not going to debate that. It isn’t untrue, but we came along and said the converse is true. Seventy-five percent also speak English. So the beauty and interesting thing of the market is the bilingual. It’s a way of life, not a method of consumption. We believe that when you are bilingual, you either consume in Spanish or in English. You go both ways ... It’s like the old expression: When you are bisexual you are never lonely on a Saturday night. The market goes both ways.

Cancela: I don’t disagree with you, but I will throw in the fact that unfortunately there are a lot of marketers out there looking for the versus; they want to go one way. Having two efforts at the same time is too much work. So you have advertisers who are saying “should I be cutting back on my Spanish-language (ads) and then putting it towards my English language?” What I say is, if anything, you should be expanding on your Spanish language and looking for additional dollars to develop your general market nuanced Hispanic themed campaigns. But one should not come at the expense of the other.

So far, you agree. What about the bulk of the Hispanic audience—who is it and how will it grow?

Cancela: Spanish-dominant is the bulk ofthe market, of the pie, or a good percentage
of the market.

Valdez: When you say Spanish-dominant is the majority of the pie, which pie? Cancela: It’s the 50-25-25 model. Go with the 50 percent Spanish-dominant, 25 percent bilingual and 25 acculturated.

Valdez: But that isn’t the case. It’s 25 percent Spanish-dominant.

Cancela: No ... The study I recently released showed roughly 50 percent is Spanish dominant, 25 percent bilingual.

Valdez: Is that 18 to 34?

Cancela: That isn’t the Hispanic marketplace. It’s not just 18 to 34. It’s 12-plus ... I’m saying the viable target, the demographic that has budgets allocated to it.

Valdez: The No.1 audience advertisers are reaching out to is 18 to 34.

Cancela: It all depends on what you are trying to sell.

Valdez: I’m speaking from what I consider, a lot of advertisers consider the demo the Nikes of the world and the Apples of the world are reaching out to. They are reaching out to the 18-to- 34 year olds....Part of the problem is we focus on language. I always tell people, it isn’t about language; it is about how you consume. We speak Spanish in our home, but we consume in English.

In the future, will the bulk of Hispanic viewers be watching in English or Spanish?

Valdez: A press release on one recent study said 35 percent of Hispanics speak Spanish and stopped there. But if you look at the whole study, it shows approximately 35 percent of third generations speak Spanish. This incidence will more precipitously decline over the next 20 years to 16 percent by 2025.

Cancela: But the raw numbers go up. It may be 16 percent but it’s 16 percent of a much bigger pie, so the raw numbers still go up. And more importantly, it shows historically by third generation, mother tongues have always disappeared. And here we have for the first time in America, an immigrant group that has come in and third generation even 16 percent of them are preserving the mother tongue. It’s pretty dramatic.

So the debate is over who is the demographic that everyone is after?

Valdez: The demos people generally buy are 11 to 17, 18 to 34 and 25-to-54 years-old. Cancela: So the 25 percent of the market that is (Spanish dominant) then applies strictly to the 18 to 34 demographic?

Valdez: No, there is research that says the model is 25 percent Spanish and 50 percent bilingual.

Cancela: No, I don’t buy it.

Valdez: I’ve even had guys from Univision and Telemundo agree with me on that split.

Cancela: On the record? Anyone who is in the marketplace that says 25 percent is Spanish dominant is absolutely out of their mind.

How will the debate be framed in the future when we talk about Hispanics and television and how it evolves?

Cancela: The marketers who truly care about the Hispanic marketplace need to get professional help that understands the marketplace and understand this isn’t an “us versus them” situation, but rather, Spanish and English situation and help grow the pie.

Valdez: You can’t dismiss the marketplace in simplistic or monolithic terms. You have to spend the effort and give it real attention and not just have one person handling it. It’s a real marketplace that has grown up. You have to look at future trends, second-and-third generation growth. ... You have to look at population and more importantly, consumption. How are Hispanics consuming? Are they watching Fox, Comedy Central, SíTV, and Univision? The answer is yes, yes, yes, and yes. At the end of the day, it comes down to content. What kind of content are you providing for Hispanics?

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