TVSpy reported Tuesday on CNN Latino’s expansion to Phoenix, New York, Orlando and Tampa after being on air in Los Angeles for a little over two months. Our colleagues over at FishbowlLA did some further digging on the new venture and spoke with Cynthia Hudson, senior vice president and general manager of CNN Español and Hispanic Strategy for CNN/U.S. to find out what’s behind the move.
>RELATED: FishbowlLA: Network Exec Thrilled with CNN Latino’s Early SoCal Success
Hudson told FishbowlLA the expansion of CNN Latino, which debuted in Los Angeles on KBEH-DT digital channel 63 January 28, is part of an aggressive three year expansion plan.
The CNN Latino executive also talked about some of the successes and surprises she’s discovered along the way. “Everybody knows that Latinos have been over-indexing on use of mobile and other kinds of devices,” said Hudson. “What’s fascinating to me is that we’re getting some big spikes on our Facebook, Twitter and fan pages, and it’s coming in large part from LA.”
“The other surprising thing is the acceptance of the new show that we’re producing with Elisabeth Espinoza [also with KTLA],” she continues. “CNN Latino is very young, but when you start beating some of the players, in demos like men/women 25-to-54, that’s not what we expected, so soon.”
Hudson also spoke about how the channel success comes from simply filling an overlooked need in an often overlooked market.
Hudson says CNN Latino has received some interesting email feedback from viewers. For example, one fan explained that the Great Recession had forced them to get rid of Spanish-language cable channels, and that they [were] thrilled not to have to subsist exclusively on telenovelas, movies and sports.