Cine Nostalgia and Cine Estelar: We still rank among the 10 most watched channels

Despite the significant expansion of the U.S. Hispanic market since 2008, when movie channels Cine Estelar and Cine Nostalgia were launched, president and CEO Carlos Vasallo is pleased that his channels are still among the 10 most watched in the market. “It’s pretty complicated, because there are over 60 Spanish-language channels, and being among the top 10 –if we ignore the broadcast channels-, keeps us in a leading position. I’m proud of this accomplishment, of my team, and of starting our seventh year in the same tone,” Vasallo told PRODU.He pointed out that although the pay-TV market has grown, it has fallen short of expectations.“When we launched in Mexico eight years ago, there were three million homes with pay-TV. Today there are 15 million. When we entered the U.S. there were three and a half million Hispanic pay-TV homes, and now there are only four and a half million. I’m constantly waiting for that jump to 15 million Hispanic homes in the U.S. That would just be a third of today’s population,” added Vasallo.He mentioned he is the process of updating his library to HD, but that it’s a lengthy and expensive process. “We’re working hard and investing a lot of money in this process. We started with our 30 Vicente Fernández’s films,” said Vasallo.