ABC’s announcement that it will carry primetime programming dubbed and closed-captioned in Spanish has some people – namely, me – wondering if the next move is local news.
There are about 41 million Latinos in the U.S., the country’s fastest-growing minority. Think of the advertising dollars.
ABC became the first major network to make the leap when it announced last week that it will begin dubbing “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost,” “George Lopez,” “Freddie” and special programming in Spanish and that the rest of its primetime shows will be closed-captioned.
Which leaves the question: What about news?
Not likely to happen anytime soon, said Byron Grandy, news director at ABC outlet KMGH-
Channel 7. “It would be hard for us do a live program in Spanish. You’d be interpreting on the fly.”
Still, it’s a difficult audience to ignore. It’s estimated that Latino buying power in the U.S. is approaching $580 billion, and Spanish-language stations in markets with large Latino populations are giving the networks a run for their ad dollar.
Eyes working overtime I feel like such a piker.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the average American household watched 8 hours and 11 minutes of television every day during the 2004-05 season which ended last month.
That’s a lot, the highest since Nielsen began measuring such things in the 1950s. It’s 2.7 percent higher than the previous season and 12.5 percent higher than 10 years ago.
Conspiracy Reader Pete Wasko has a theory on the failure of ABC’s high-definition system on “Monday Night Football” last week.
“I’ve had HD for over a year and haven’t had a single moment of trouble with it. Then, on a big Monday night, primed for the game with buddies and brews in my basement, it goes kablooie at just the moment the game starts?
“You can’t see CBS’s fingerprints all over this? The Broncos’ home channel isn’t going to sit idle and watch rival ABC get over on them for the big game!
“I’m not sure I really believe that happened but it does seem very suspicious, doesn’t it? The horror of having to watch the game on ‘regular’ TV (not to mention the extra beers to console ourselves) is something from which I won’t recover for many weeks!”
Around the dial
Former CU women’s basketball coach Ceal Barry kicks off her new career as TV analyst on Nov. 21. She’ll do 20 games for FSN Rocky Mountain, all at home. … Breakthrough: Sheryl Underwood becomes the first woman host of “Comic View,” launching its 15th season tonight with D.L. Hughley and Cedric the Entertainer (8, BET). … Quotable: “If the television craze continues with the present level of programs, we are destined to have a nation of morons.” Daniel Marsh
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
