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Diversity on demand
Satellite-, cable-TV operators expand multicultural offerings

By Ryan Peacock, Special to the News
August 22, 2005

Nowadays, a remote control is like a passport. Scroll through the on-screen menus of satellite and cable systems, and you'll find a wide array of multicultural programming.

EchoStar Communications Corp.'s Dish Network added 50 international channels during the past year, featuring content ranging from Polish independent films to French-language broadcasts of African music festivals.

Comcast, Denver's and Colorado's main cable provider, recently revamped its lineup of Spanish-language networks, adding eight channels, along with video-on-demand services to target Hispanic viewers.

"The world's getting smaller, there's more international travel and awareness, and people are demanding more information more rapidly," said Steve Caulk, spokesman for Dish Network. "People have become used to the instant access of the Internet, and we are trying to fill that demand with the programming we offer."

Dish Network is the second-largest satellite-television service behind DirecTV and offers subscribers access to more than 100 international channels from more than 25 countries in more than 25 languages. Its parent company, EchoStar Communications, is based in Douglas County.

Although Anglos remain the largest segment of Colorado's population at 72.5 percent, Hispanic and Asian-American segments continue to grow. From 2000 to 2004, the Hispanic population increased by 19.5 percent to 864,439, and Asian-Americans increased by 18 percent to 116,483, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. During that same period, the Anglo population grew by just 3.6 percent to 3,334,447.

Bill Mosher, vice president of marketing and sales for Comcast Colorado, said the expansion of multicultural programming is also being fueled by a larger supply of content.

"The quality of programming that exists now just wasn't available before," he noted.

Successful English-language networks are building off established brands and continue to extend their reach into this area. Discovery Communications recently launched two Hispanic channels, one focused on children's programming and the other on travel and daily living shows targeting women. And foreign news coverage is being added to lineups with the rise of networks such as Al-Jazeera, the Arab news channel based in Qatar that has gained notoriety for its Middle East coverage since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Both satellite and cable operators have made significant investments to increase capacity and carry more channels, but there is a distinct difference in what each is offering in multicultural programming.

Dish Network sends its programming signals on a national delivery platform that allows it to offer a wider range of international channels.

When selecting networks to add, Caulk said, Dish Network often starts with the simple approach that what's popular in other countries will be popular with subscribers here.

"It's along the same lines of any channel we consider adding, but it gets a little more complicated because you have to travel overseas to negotiate with programmers," he added.

Cable providers, on the other hand, have more limited bandwidth because they deliver programming through local systems. And decisions on which networks to add are often tied to subscriber demographics in each market.

In the Denver area, Comcast's multicultural programming is predominantly Hispanic, with 24 Spanish-language channels and one channel targeting Asian-Americans.

Mosher said one unique characteristic of the local market that influences programming choices is that the majority of local Hispanics are of Mexican descent. One is Juan Ibarra, a 26-year-old Longmont resident from the state of Zacatecas.

Juan moved here eight years ago and speaks mainly Spanish, while his 24-year-old wife, Jessica, who grew up in Colorado, is -bilingual.

The couple subscribe to Comcast, and their favorite Hispanic networks are Univision and Telefutura.

"He watches those stations because they have the things he likes, and it's a way for him to stay connected with the culture," Jessica said. "And Sunday is the most important day because of the big soccer games."

Juan and Jessica are also avid viewers of novellas, Spanish-language soap operas that generally last four to six months.

"It's a cultural thing; guys watch novellas as much as girls do," Jessica said.

The next wave of Hispanic networks is moving beyond a general programming format to focus on niche audiences.

Comcast's recent expansion included Gol TV, a Latin American network dedicated solely to soccer that offers more than 800 professional games, and TBN en Lace, a Hispanic faith and religious programming channel.

Dish Network targets Hispanic viewers with three packages, ranging from Spanish-only programming across 31 channels for $30 per month to a package that includes the Spanish-only channels along with more than 195 English-language channels for $50 per month.

The other major multicultural package offered is geared to Asian-Americans. The "Great Wall" package was released in October 2004. For $30 per month, viewers have access to 17 Asian-language channels that offer popular Chinese dramas, coverage of Peking operas and children's programming.

Comcast's CableLatino package includes basic cable programming plus 22 additional Spanish-language networks and more than 100 hours of Spanish video-on-demand at $28 per month.

Dish Network and Comcast have launched Spanish-language Web sites and continue to add services for viewers. Dish Network's customer-support call center in New Jersey has dedicated teams for every language it offers, and Comcast employs installation technicians that are fluent in Spanish.

Comcast Colorado's sole Asian-American network is AZN Television (the International Channel before being re-branded in March 2005).

"Asian cultures and celebrities are becoming great influencers in entertainment, sports and culture," said Steve Smith, managing director of International Networks, the parent company of AZN Television.

"One of the challenges for such a diverse Asian-American market is finding and developing programming that will resonate across all groups. But the commonality is English," Smith said.

"Since 85 percent of Asian-Americans speak English, our goal is to aggregate this diverse audience with English-language programming."

AZN is headquartered in Centennial and was part of Liberty Media Corp. before being purchased by Comcast.

Hispanic networks are using the same approach with English-language programming tied to Hispanic culture.

"Networks like mun2 and S' TV are targeting younger Hispanic viewers who are navigating between two cultures. They could be at a hip-hop concert one day and then go see a Latin rock group the next," said Franklin Rios, owner of Rios group, a Hispanic ad agency based in Denver.

Denver-area TV market breakdown

Denver ranks as the 18th-largest television market in the country, with 1.4 million television households. Of those:

• 85.1 percent are white.

• 13.9 percent are Hispanic. (Denver is the 16th-largest Hispanic TV market in the U.S.)

• 4 percent are black.

• 2.6 percent are Asian-American.

• 60 percent of all households subscribe to cable.

• 23 percent of all households subscribe to satellite.

• Of note: There are a number of reasons these figures add up to more than 100 percent, among them the fact that Hispanic is not considered to be a race based on Census Bureau definitions. So, Hispanics may fall into more than one racial or ethnic category. The same is true of multiracial households.