Estrella, Canela, Nuestra.TV Tout Diverse Hispanic Content

It’s an old song, but it continues to ring true: U.S. Hispanics are underserved and oftentimes misunderstood. There are 62 million Hispanics in the U.S. with $2 trillion in purchasing power, and like other ethnic groups, they’re slowly but surely eschewing linear television for streaming video, particularly ad-supported content. Three brands who are acutely aware of Hispanic America’s changing content consumption behaviors—Estrella Media, Canela Media and Nuestra.TV, a new AVOD product from Hispanic mobile ad and media company Adsmovil—each made their respective pitches to advertisers during virtual NewFronts presentations Thursday. Here were the highlights of each one: Estrella Media: 1.3 billion monthly streaming minutes Estrella Media is the most well-known and established of the aforementioned brands in the U.S. Hispanic marketplace. The company sports an over-the-air Spanish language national broadcast network, EstrellaTV, carrying entertainment, news, sports and games programming on 16 owned or operated stations and over 32 affiliated stations. It's also becoming a player in the Spanish language streaming content space, amplified by the company’s recently announced co-production content partnership with Mexico’s TV Azteca, which calls for the companies to co-produce 600-plus hours of original content over the next two years. Estrella focused on its digital content offerings during its NewFronts presentation, and will speak more broadly about its linear slate during the company's upfront event on May 9. "Today, we're here to speak to you specifically about our digital video portfolio and how it reaches over 30 million consumers monthly to generate four billion minutes per month," said Estrella ad sales chief Steve Mandala. "For every marketer seeking growth, the Hispanic consumer is the right place to be. It's driving population and economic growth, and audience targeting and the elimination of waste. It's interesting to point out that the Hispanic audience is already an addressable audience with specific consumer and psychographic characteristics that may be efficiently targeted through our OTT and FAST platforms. Our strategic goal is to make our video platforms available to all consumers, and make their experience frictionless and always free." Estrella digital and streaming chief René Santaella said he expects the company's streaming digital audience to grow another 25% by the year's end and hit 1.3 billion streaming minutes per month. Santaella spoke about the company's four digital content initiatives. First, Estrella's popular reality series Rica Famosa Latina will return for a sixth season, but with a twist: "The episodes will premiere in Q3 on digital first before their broadcasts on the Estrella TV network." Meanwhile, Estrella's new series MasterChef Latinos will return for another season with a new complementary digital only content series. Also, Estrella's flagship event Premios de la Radio (Radio Awards) will return with live, pre and post-event content exclusively available on digital. Finally, the company will also be expanding its Tengo Talento Mucho Talento franchise with a brand new format, El Rancho. Contestants will compete to win a recording contract and a $100,000 grand prize. Exclusive digital content for that series will include contestants working with high-profile artists as mentors and performances not seen on TV. Canela Media: 50 linear channels Canela Media’s founder and CEO Isabel Rafferty shared news about the Spanish language tech media company’s next tier of content during its NewFronts pitch. The company will be offering 50 linear channels by the end of 2022, and is going to debut 300 hours of all new content, scripted and unscripted entertainment, in the coming months for the Canela.TV brand. That slate ranges from a docuseries about a harrowing immigrant journey towards the U.S., to a reality dating series where the "abuela" (grandmother) picks their grandchild's partner. Canela Media also touted a variety of new music-themed original programming under the Canela Music umbrella, and announced it will be adding to its growing portfolio of ad-supported brands with Canela Kids, a new Spanish-language AVOD service for kids 2-12 launching August 16. Rafferty, who opened her pre-taped presentation standing beside the Fearless Girl statue on Wall Street, said, “At Canela, we look to elevate our compelling narrative through a distinctly Hispanic lens, and this audience is never an afterthought. They are our primary reason for being. Our approach to alliances with brands as well as our work in original content must be authentic, disruptive and empowering—for our viewers, our creators and our marketing partners. We will deliver all of that and more in 2022.” She added, “The insights we have about our passionate fans fuel all of our choices, which is what makes Canela the only real strategic AVOD player for Hispanic audiences. We understand that the Latin viewer comes in many flavors, and the Canela community of offerings celebrates each of those identities including Afro-Latinos, Hispanic Americans, immigrants and many more.” Canela Media also unveiled plans for their recently launched Innovation Labs, a new division based in Silicon Valley that will use key learnings and technologies to inspire innovations that make the overall media experience more immersive. In the past year, Canela Media has partnered with numerous brands including Verizon, TurboTax, Target and Nissan with new alliances set with Pizza Hut, Unilever, Sephora, Mondelez and the Department of Health and Human Services in the coming months. The company will celebrate its first CincoDeFront event this evening at New York’s Paradise Club at The Times Square Edition hotel. Nuestra.TV targets 'bicultural, bilingual' Hispanics Hispanic mobile advertising, and digital media company Adsmovil announced the launch of Nuestra.TV, the company's first-ever ad-supported streaming video service targeting "bicultural, bilingual" Hispanic audiences of all ages. The new service will be available to consumers at the end of the second quarter. Nuestra.TV is rolling out with more than 40 FAST channels and 15,000 hours of VOD content. Its downloadable content library includes productions (both English and Spanish) from the U.S., Latin America and Spain as well as original content created for the bilingual/bicultural consumer. Its offerings include educational programming that is not only educational but empowering, along with gaming, podcasts, user-generated content, live news and music events. At its NewFronts presentation, Adsmovil executives touched on their respective bicultural life experiences and why a product like Nuestra.TV is so essential to immigrants and their families: Adsmovil CMO Maria Lopez Twena grew up in New Orleans speaking English in school and with friends, but Spanish at home, CRO Andrew Polsky is a white Jew who grew up in South Florida in a predominantly Spanish-speaking area and vp of product Adriana Daantje is from Venezuela and has had to adjust to re-learning English upon her move to the U.S. Twena feels a product like Nuestra.TV, offering diverse content in both languages "gives Hispanics a feeling that they belong," said Twena. Polsky added that there is opportunity for short-form and long-form brand integration within the shows. “With Nuestra.TV we are uniquely positioned to provide Hispanic cord cutters with a platform that is inclusive and authentic, and informed by content that is culturally and linguistically relevant, informative and engaging,” said president and CEO Alberto Pardo. “Nuestra.TV was created for all Latinos in the U.S., including the often overlooked bilingual/bicultural cohort.”

NewFronts

Estrella, Canela, Nuestra.TV Tout Diverse Programming for Hispanic Audiences at NewFronts

'For every marketer seeking growth, the Hispanic consumer is the right place to be'

A.J. Katz

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A.J. Katz