Lino Garcia of ESPN Deportes: Our upfront programming offer will accent the digital

For this upfront season, ESPN Deportes will put greater emphasis on its digital platforms offer. The channel will also begin to provide the insertion of spots on its WatchESPN mobile platform, something that was unavailable at last year’s upfront.“For several months we’ve been broadcasting on the WatchESPN platforms, which is ESPN Deportes available live on all mobile platforms – computers, smartphones, tablets – and now we’re beginning to sell this product because the apps come separately. We don’t have the same commercials as on TV screens, it’s a new offer for the upfront,” Lino Garcia, general manager of ESPN Deportes, told PRODU.Asked about the general panorama of the upfront season for Hispanic TV channels in the United States, Garcia summed it up with the word growth.“More and more advertisers see the potential of the Hispanic market and are investing in TV channels and other advertising media. In our case, we’re not limited to the usual television screen but adapt to multiple platforms. Advertisers come to us basically to engage the male demos, as well as adults ages 18-49,” he said.Garcia also noted a particular factor that has evolved in the upfront negotiations: the total market concept. “Together with ESPN we have sold packages to advertisers that heighten their interest in this multidimensional market because they engage not only the Hispanic market in Spanish but also the Hispanic market in English. We’ve done that for a couple of years and it keeps growing for us.”