Day Two
Attendees got an extensive briefing on the state of kids TV for the Spanish-speaking audience in the U.S. from Michael Fletcher, president of Sorpresa TV. His company launched the ¡SORPRESA! channel on March 15, 2003 to bring 100% kids programming to Spanish-language households.

He said children’s programming is not a priority with the big Spanish-language broadcasters, which are Univision, Telemundo and Aztecha America. They run some animation, but no live action targeted to kids. While Mexico is the second-largest producer of programming, one of the big broadcaster/producers told Fletcher, “The kids market isn’t important to us in Mexico so we don’t do it.”

Fletcher finds this particularly odd, as he reminded attendees that Hispanics form the fastest growing market segment in the U.S. Right now, one in six kids in the States is Hispanic, and pretty soon that will be one in five. That, and 35% of the entire U.S. Hispanic population is under the age of 18, accounting for about 10.5 million kids.

He said advertisers have found economics are not an issue now as one out of every three Hispanic families in the U.S. earns more than $50,000 a year. Stereotypes are out the window. Also, Spanish is the second-most spoken language in the world.

BrainCamp participants listen to speakers and network in an informal atmosphere of camaraderie.

He and his partners saw this as not only an opportunity, but also a need. He believes their gamble will pay off and is already finding the channel’s basic programs are getting good ratings, showing that kids are starving for shows. ¡SORPRESA! tiers programming by age throughout the day, with young kids early in the day and up to older kids, 14-17, it’s Teen Novella in the evening.

Sorpresa TV buys programming from all over the world, primarily from Puerto Rico, Chile, Spain, Peru and Australia. It can acquire it for a nominal amount (average programming cost is less than $300 for a half-hour) by Spanish producers eager to get their product into the U.S.

What kids programming does exist, they often have to reject for content. In Mexico, it’s okay to show kids 10 or 12 years old smoking. They reject that for the U.S.

While its cheaper to acquire than produce, Sorpresa TV is embarking on making its own programming in the U.S. He said they seek programming that entertains, educates and empowers kids. Sorpresa means “surprise” in Spanish.

One of the shows his channel bought is a serial comedy show, Mi Familia es un Dibujo, in which a live-action mom gives birth to a cartoon son.

Targeting kids gives his channel a slight advantage in the Spanish-language TV market. Whereas many adults are very sensitive to the different dialects of Spanish, children don’t discriminate when it comes to dialects, they are more concerned with the content, and it can’t be too regional or localized.

Things are already changing. Due to a recent survey, Aztecha America found viewers want more kids programming and entered into a joint venture with Sorpresa TV to carry eight hours of kids programming on Saturdays and Sundays.

The biggest challenge his company faces is the “Hispanic tax.” In cable, all the Spanish-language channels have been aggregated and put together on a tier that viewers must pay for. This doesn’t apply to fullpower stations like Univision with FCC “must carry” rights.

Digital channels like ¡SORPRESA! get grouped into a package with 10-20 other Spanish channels from all over the world. A basic analog subscriber pays around $20 a month, he said. “If you want the Spanish package, then you have to subscribe to a digital service, which bumps it out to about $50 a month,” and then one must buy the Spanish tier for anywhere from a few dollars to $20. “This has been a failed strategy,” Fletcher said.

Dish Network offers two packages, for the same price, one with Hispanic channels and one without. Dish went from having less than 100,000 Hispanic customers to close to one million in three years. There are six million Hispanic cable homes in the U.S. and another two million satellite homes. Cable companies are changing their strategy, especially Adelphia and Charter, which add only $4 for the Spanish package.