Nielsen to Generate National Ratings for Both English -and Spanish Language Television from the Same Panel

A significant example of the corporate acceptance of the Latin influence on American culture is Nielsen Media Research's decision to combine its English and Spanish language television viewing panels. You can find the whole press release at the Nielsen Media Research Web site, but here are some excerpts.

New York, NY, August 27, 2007 – The Nielsen Company announced that beginning today it will produce all national Hispanic ratings through its National People Meter (NPM) panel, the same sample that is used to produce ratings for non-Hispanic networks. This will put national Spanish-language television on a level playing field with English-language television, providing a common ratings number for all national networks.

As a consequence of providing ratings from a single national sample for all television networks regardless of language, Nielsen will retire its separate National Hispanic People Meter (NHPM) panel, which has measured Hispanic households since 1992. This completes a transition that started in late 2005, when a number of Spanish language networks began to use ratings data from the NPM sample.

The growth of Hispanic television in recent years has resulted from the growing market power of the Hispanic population as a whole:

• The number of Hispanic viewers in the U.S. has risen from 22.2 million, or 9% of the total U.S. population, in 1992-93 to 38.9 million, or 14% of the total population in 2005-06.

• Ad spending on Spanish-language network and cable television has grown from approximately $1.8 billion in 2001 to more than $3.05 billion in 2006, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

• In the 1992-1993 television season, there were two national Spanish-language broadcast networks, attracting a combined average primetime audience of 2.4 million Hispanic viewers. In the 2006-2007 television season, there were four national Spanish-language broadcast networks with a combined average primetime audience of 4.1 million Hispanic viewers.

“By providing the marketplace with a single source of television ratings regardless of language, Nielsen will allow the television industry to evaluate both English and Spanish language television and audiences side-by-side,” said Sara Erichson, Executive Vice President, Nielsen Media Research North America. “This step is part of Nielsen’s commitment to continuously improve the quality and accuracy of its measurement and to ensure that our measurements reflect the growing diversity of the entire U.S. population.”

If you are interested in listening to some discussion on this topic, there was a report on NPR - Morning Edition

Media researcher Brad Adgate discusses the change and the growth of the Hispanic television market with Renee Montagne.

Source : NPR - Morning Edition

The Latinization of American food and lifestyle.

American culture has been through many transitions. Most Americans take pride in the fact that the United States is a "melting pot" that has adopted the influences of many different ethnic more 200-year history. We may say we are going to an Italian restaurant, but we certainly think of pizza and pasta as a stable of American cuisine.

Latinization is a buzz word right now, but as Cristina Benitez' book, Latinization, points out, Latino influences are being adopted so quickly in the U.S. that they will soon be mainstream culture. Latinization is simply the most recent transition of American culture.

This month shows many examples of this main stream adoption of the Latin influence.

1. The upscale epicurean magazine Gourmet devotes the September special issue to the exploration, taste, and celebration of Latino culture.
   
   The magazine showcases the voices and food-loving adventures of Latino writers Junot Diaz, who takes readers inside his Dominican New York, and Ana Menedez, who offers a tour of the Cuban culinary scene in Miami.
   
   
2. In the September issue of the magazine Every Day With Rachael Ray, the energetic talk show host introduces two new contributors, chef and author Daisy Martinez and interior designer and home improvement maven Evette Ríos, both of whom are Puerto Rican.
   
   
3. Cable's Food Network has ordered an additional 13 episodes of its daytime entertaining and food program Simply Delicioso, hosted by Colombia-born lifestyle aficionada Ingrid Hoffman. The show airs Saturdays on the cable food channel at 11:30 a.m. ET. She also serves as host of the Spanish-language show Delicioso on Galavisión/Univision and is considered to be the first TV host to have two Latino lifestyle programs in two languages airing on two cable networks. Hoffman's cookbook, Simply Deliciosio: A Collection of Everyday Recipes With a Latin Twist, is being published by Clarkson Potter/Random House and is scheduled for release in February 2008.