Comcast: Our Hispanic portfolio will change

Homer González III, director of Content Acquisition of Comcast Cable, said when the MSO adds a channel to its Hispanic portfolio, it takes into consideration the channel’s offer as a whole.“These are business decisions. We analyze whether it is a genre that appeals to Hispanics, we look at the market, social media chatter, the channel’s multi-platform capabilities, as well as cost considerations,” said González at the discussion panel “The Current Environment and Competitive Trends for Network Distribution,” during the 9th Annual Hispanic Television Summit held last week in New York.Antonio Briceño, VP of Programming & Distribution of Imagina US, said he still had not seen any new initiative on the part of pay-TV operators to drive the Hispanic subscriber base, which is still below four million but with the potential to reach greater figures.González said that the portfolio of Hispanic channels of Comcast will not remain unaltered and that changes are expected soon. He pointed out that unfortunately tier 1 distribution did not offer many choices for Hispanics. “We must keep moving,” he added.Clemente Cabello, general manager of Alterna´TV, said Hispanic pay-TV will remain small unless it adds more viewers and perhaps the key is an alternate form of distribution.