10392: Tuning In For Latino Viewers.

From The New York Times…

Networks Struggle to Appeal to Hispanics

By Tanzina Vega and Bill Carter

Sofia Vergara is probably the most recognizable Hispanic actress working in English-language television. She is one of the stars of “Modern Family,” the highest-rated scripted show on network television, and she has parlayed her celebrity into commercials for brands like Pepsi and Cover Girl.

Despite her popularity, “Modern Family” is not a hit with Hispanic viewers. Out of its overall viewership of 12.9 million, “Modern Family” drew an average of only about 798,000 Hispanic viewers in the season. That audience accounts for only about 6 percent of the show’s viewers — less than half of what you might expect given the 48 million Hispanic television viewers that Nielsen measures.

The same pattern can be seen on other top network shows: “Two and a Half Men” on CBS averaged 611,000 Hispanic viewers out of an average total of 14.6 million viewers. “Grey’s Anatomy” on ABC averaged 583,000 out of 10.9 million. “Glee” on Fox averaged 518,000 out of 8.7 million. And “NCIS” on CBS averaged 509,000 out of 19.1 million.

The numbers encapsulate the problem facing English-language television executives and advertisers: they desperately want to appeal to the more than 50 million Latinos in the United States (about three-quarters speak Spanish), especially those who are young, bilingual and bicultural, but those viewers seem to want very little to do with American English-language television.

They do, however, continue to watch Spanish-language networks in huge numbers. In May, on the final night of the most recent season of “Modern Family,” far more Hispanic viewers were watching the top Spanish language show that week, the telenovela “La Que No Podía Amar,” on Univision, which attracted 5.2 million viewers.

“We’re part of the fastest-growing demographic in the country,” said Randy Falco, the president and chief of Univision. The company recently entered into a partnership with ABC News, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, to create a 24-hour news channel to serve Hispanic viewers.

Read the full story here.