Cross posted at VivirLatino.

If you’re like me, you watch Spanish-language television but think that most of what’s on it makes you feel like it was created for people who lack brain cells. It seems like the people behind the production fail to realize that their viewers aren’t idiots, and insist on feeding them TV psychics, Mario Almada movies and lots and lots of novelas. I’m not sure if that will change any time soon, but this might be a good sign:

A for-profit venture partnered with public television, V-me (pronounced “veh-meh,” from the Spanish veme, for “see me”) is a 24-hour digital broadcast network carried on basic digital cable and satellite systems. The network will be partners with public TV stations, which will receive V-me at no cost… Programming features a mix of original productions and acquisitions as well as public television fare adapted for American Latinos, with content organized into four categories: lifestyle, factual, movie/special events, and kids (with V-me devoting 36 hours per week for programming devoted to preschoolers).

V-me has established content and co-production relationships with PBS producers WGBH and Thirteen/WNET, in addition to Sesame Workshop, HiT Entertainment, Alliance Atlantis and others. Familiar programs on the schedule range from “Cyberchase” and “Plaza Sesamo” to “Nature” and “Great Performances.” The network’s flagship original program, “Viva Voz,” is a nightly interview series that promises to discuss social issues affecting Latinos and society as a whole.

A couple of interesting things here. One is the obvious: “Nature” and “Great Performances” are at about the very opposite end of the spectrum of what is currently seen on Telemundo and Univision. Appealing to a higher common denominator, what an interesting concept. But is it risky? I don’t think so. I often watch Univision agape, asking myself why they air such trash, supposedly for people from Latin America, when in Latin America there actually is good programming.

Also interesting: V-me is devoting 36 hours per week to kids programming — precisely the area that Univision got fined a record $24 million for skimping on recently.

Interesting too is the language of choice. V-me appears to be banking on US Latinos whose language is primarily Spanish, rather than the other way around like Mun2 and other ventures have done it.

I have to say their branding speaks to me, and it probably will resonate with a lot of people who have the same gripes I do about Spanish language TV. From their website:

Porque queremos vernos y mostrarnos de una manera positiva. Porque esperamos más de la televisión en español.

According to AP, V-me will initially be available in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco and San Antonio, among other cities.

Via / Yahoo! Entertainment

Images via V-me and NielsenMedia.com

Cross-posted at VivirLatino

Earlier this year we told you about how the major networks both here and in the UK were betting on telenovelas in English — either adapted from storylines from Spanish-language television or following the traditional finite end format — to be “the next big thing”. The New York Times tells us now that the love affair with novelas has faded fast as networks wake up hating themselves in the morning:

“It’s right to characterize what we were all caught up in last year as telenovela fever,” said Katherine Pope, the executive vice president of NBC Entertainment. The ardor has apparently cooled. In the 12 months since news reports revealed that CBS was working on as many as seven scripts for telenovelas, that ABC had invested in as many as 45 existing telenovela storylines, and NBC was jumping in to adapt telenovelas already produced by Telemundo, the Spanish-language network that NBC owns, not much more has been said — or done. Not a single telenovela project has been put into production by any of those networks.

According to the Times piece, the business model just doesn’t work here, as upon sacrificing quality to do the shows for cheap, the studios risk alienating viewers that are used to higher production value. Oops. And the ratings for the telenovela-style shows that have been produced and are running are nothing to write home about:

Not that many people have tuned in. MNT has so far tried four telenovelas, including one, “Fashion House,” starring the former sirens Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild (complete with catfight between them), and another, the current “Wicked Wicked Games,” starring Tatum O’Neal. Running two episodes at a time five nights a week, the network has thus far made little noise with any of its telenovelas. Ratings for MNT’s telenovelas in the 18- to 49-year-old audience, the primary market for most broadcasters, have been negligible. They have been scoring about half a national rating point — or less — which translates to about 650,000 viewers in that group (compared with 8 million to 10 million viewers for a hit show in the same period).

I don’t know much about the broadcast business, but that sounds pretty bad. Maybe this trend will end like a telenovela rags-to-riches story with the poor, lowly novela getting the viewers — and the dollars — in the end. In TV, it’s amazing how these things happen. I mean who ever thought LOST would such be a hit?

Via / The New York Times