TransCity

Source: New York Times, Mireya Navarro, September 24.
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In “Pimpeando (see picture),” a new show about cars, the talk is of lowriders and paint jobs with images of Aztecs and the Virgin of Guadalupe. The target audience may also watch “Pimp My Ride,” the MTV car customizing series on which “Pimpeando” is based. But the sought-after viewers for this show are primarily young Latinos, a fast-growing demographic whose taste in entertainment runs from English to Spanish, from American to Latin, and back. And MTV is giving chase.

Today it is starting MTV Tr3s in the U.S. as a replacement for the all-Spanish language “MTV en Español,” a 15-year-old video jukebox that MTV executives now say was a placeholder while they tried to figure out more fitting programming for the Latino youth audience. The new MTV Tr3s, or MTV Three, doesn’t shun Spanish - it will broadcast, for example, “Quiero Mis Quinces,” a Latin American show about the coming-of-age parties for 15-year-old girls, with English subtitles - but it will mostly reflect the fusion of American and Latin music, cultures and languages, MTV executives said. That means V.J.’s who speckle their English with Spanish words, a playlist that puts Daddy Yankee next to Justin Timberlake, and original programming like “Pimpeando,” which pairs the popular host-customizer Michael Martin, or “Mad Mike,” star of “Pimp My Ride,” with Luis Lopez, a custom painter from the San Fernando Valley.

MTV Tr3s, pronounced “MTV tres,” is concentrating on Latinos between the ages of 12 and 34 and expects to reach at least 15 million households through cable, satellite and broadcast channels, said Lucia Ballas-Traynor, general manager of the network’s new channel. Market research has consistently shown that while the American-born generations increasingly speak only English, they preserve a pride and sense of uniqueness based on their Hispanic heritage. Christina Norman, the president of MTV, declined to estimate the dollar investment the network made in Tr3s, but she said that from its name - “Three,” following MTV and MTV2, MTV’s video-intensive offshoot - to its sharing of MTV’s marketing, research and even personnel, the new network is beaming a message in and outside the company that “it’s not that Latin channel over there.”

“In people, in money and in time, MTV Tr3s is part of the MTV brand in the biggest way that we can think of,” she said. The potential audience is huge. About one in five Americans aged 34 and younger is of Hispanic descent, and MTV executives cite Census Bureau estimates that say by 2020 the Latino teenage population is expected to have grown 62 percent, compared to 10 percent for teenagers over all.

Television networks are not the only ones trying to figure out how to reach this audience. Carl Kravetz, chairman of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies, said his group is grappling with a shift away from equating Latin with Spanish. He said that instead of emphasizing language - “Should we do the ad in English or Spanish?” - the thinking is shifting to first considering whether the message touches on the common values and attitudes that set Latinos apart from the general market. These attitudes, he said, include a less individualistic approach to life, a less rebellious view of parents and a less rigid sense of privacy. “It is obvious that whatever it is at the core of feeling Latino is not just about language,” Mr. Kravetz said. “It really is about identity.”

Already cable channels like SiTV and Mun2, a Telemundo channel that underwent a makeover last year, offer Latin-theme hybrid programming. Robert Rose, chief executive of the AIM Tell-A-Vision Group, which produces two syndicated shows for American-born Latinos, said that the advent of MTV Tr3s is significant because it should help get the attention of advertisers, the majority of which, he noted, still try to reach Latinos through Spanish-language media only.

“I view them as an ally because they’re further validating the market that we’re all targeting,” Mr. Rose said of MTV. Executives at Mun2 say their shows are striking a cord with their target audiences. A musical countdown show of both Spanish and English hits, “18 & Over,” beats MTV, VH1 and BET among Hispanic viewers aged 12 to 34, with about 66,000 watching.