Comcast Makes Its Move

Cable World,  Sept 8, 2003  

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Much of the Spanish-language programming remains on digital tiers, and that complicates life a bit for Weber and her team. At this point, Comcast can't insert ads on its digital tiers, meaning advertisers can't reach many of the Hispanic viewers they're aiming for.

However, research shows that Hispanic viewers don't spend all their time watching Spanish-language programming. Hispanics watch a wide range of programming in both English and Spanish, Weber says. "Hispanic viewership goes across all genres and languages. We found that viewers may watch Galavision one hour and switch to MTV or ESPN an hour later."

Other studies back up Comcast's research. Cheskin, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based market research firm, reports that Hispanics watch an average of four hours of television a day (2.5 hours in Spanish) and listen to the radio for three hours, 11 minutes every day (2.10 hours in Spanish). Nielsen Media Research didn't break down viewing between English- and Spanish-language programming but found that Hispanic-American homes watched 8.2 hours a day of television programming in 1999-2000. Spanish-dominant homes watched a tad less, sitting in front of the tube 7.9 hours a day. Nielsen also determined that in 2001, there were 8.94 million Hispanic-American television households. Of those, only 4.55 million used Spanish as their dominant language.

As a result, Comcast is now subscribing to the Nielsen Hispanic-American Television Index, a compilation of ratings information about Hispanic viewing habits. Comcast is using NHTI in its Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and Dallas markets. The MSO is the first non-Spanish-language broadcaster to subscribe to the service, Weber says, and it's paying off.

"Cable's share in all Hispanic homes is almost the same as Spanish-language broadcast homes," she says. "Our share in all Hispanic homes is between 25 and 35. The combined Spanish-language broadcast share is between 30 and 36."

Cable also has a 60 share of Hispanic viewers between the ages of 2 and 12, she says. That's significant because family programming and content is highly valued in Hispanic homes. Family-related programming is probably the biggest draw for Hispanic consumers.

The NHTI initiative is indicative of Comcast's commitment to helping advertisers reach multicultural audiences, Weber says, including the 3 million Hispanic households within the MSO's reach. Serrano agrees, but still notes that as a media buyer, she goes to Spanish-language broadcasters first when it comes to placing ads.

"As they roll out services such as Adcopy and Adtag and provide us with information from Nielsen, we'll certainly take advantage of them more often," Serrano says. "But we are in the beginning stages of what will be available in the future. The off-air stations still get most of our attention, but that's changing and will continue to change."

Weber is convinced the introduction of Adtag and the NHTI, among other moves, will reap big rewards for both Comcast and advertisers buying avails from the MSO.