Multicultural pay-TV: Second-screen events and VOD boost consumption of linear TV

At the 2014 Cable Show panel about consumer sales and marketing entitled Serving the Multicultural Pay-TV Market, organized by Multichannel News and B&C, participants said technology plays an important role in the taste and preferences of the audience.The panel was composed by Val Boreland, EVP of Production and Programming of Revolt; Sandra Lee, president and CEO of ES Advertising, Inc.; Lynnette Ramírez, VP of Programming of NUVOtv; and José Vélez, senior director of Multicultural Marketing of Comcast Cable.Boreland said that for her audience the ability to watch digital content is more important than watching traditional TV. Vélez said that VOD has been a great success for Comcast. During the Watchathon Week, the MSO experienced spikes and some of the most watched were two Telemundo properties.According to Ramírez content is what matters and all platforms are valid: digital, VOD, mobile. She said NUVOtv will launch online a six-episode series about boxing that will culminate with a live TV event.When asked how they bridge the generational gap of their audiences, Vélez said that Comcast’s X1 Platform is able to determine the profile of the subscriber. “In reality we cannot serve Hispanic customer based only on their country of origin; we must also treat them as Americans. We’ve created different tiers of Latino packages. We’re taking into account the composition of each Hispanic household. We’ve expanded our options,” she added.