Expansion of WRIW-TV Telemundo Providence to the Comcast cable system that serves the New Bedford and Fall River area has resulted in a 20-percent increase in viewers for the Hispanic television channel, a gain of about 8,000 households in five months.
That’s according to Mike Gillespie, senior vice president of ZGS Communications New England, owner and operator of the local Telemundo affiliates. “It’s new and exciting for us to be in New Bedford and Fall River,” Gillespie said. “We’re happy to be expanding and we’re looking forward to serving the Hispanic community.”
Telemundo has added several sports offerings to its roster, including programs about the Boston Red Sox and the Pawtucket Red Sox as well as soccer games and Olympics coverage this summer, Gillespie said.
The expansion to Comcast in January means that WRIW can be seen on digital channel 740 in 170,000 subscribing households, 8,200 of which are Hispanic, in Berkley, Dartmouth, Dighton, Easton, Fairhaven, Fall River, Freetown, Mansfield, New Bedford, Norton, Rehoboth, Seekonk, Somerset and Taunton. Previously, the Hispanic station was carried in this area only by Cox Communications, the major cable television provider in Rhode Island.
“We are extremely excited about the additional coverage for WRIW, but even more excited about the opportunity to serve the growing Hispanic community in the Providence market,” Gillespie said. “This is an important step for our station and we are committed to making WRIW and Telemundo a leading voice for the Hispanic community in Providence.”
Gillespie attributed the increase in Telemundo viewers in Massachusetts to the growing number of Hispanics in this area and throughout the nation, as well as the wide range of quality programming he said his station provides.
The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that the number of people of Hispanic/Latino descent in Massachusetts and in Rhode Island grew more than 30 percent from 2000 to 2006. The census reported an estimated 117,708 people of Hispanic/Latino origin in Rhode Island as of 2006, 11 percent of the state’s population. Some 510,482 Hispanics lived in Massachusetts in 2006, 7.9 percent of the residents in that state, the census said.
Nationally, the census bureau reported in May that the Hispanic population reached 45.5 million in 2007, accounting for 15 percent of the total population. Hispanics are the largest minority group in Rhode Island and in the nation.
Telemundo offers viewers “a full range of television programming,” Gillespie said, but its most popular feature are the “novellas,” or primetime soap operas, that Telemundo itself produces in Miami, Mexico City and Colombia. The novellas are seen nationwide on Telemundo.
Regarding sports, in addition to the “very popular” soccer games that Telemundo carries, Gillespie said, the Providence affiliate is offering two special programs about the Boston Red Sox and Pawtucket Red Sox. The “Boston Red Sox Report” is a weekly program featuring highlights of recent games and, for the PawSox, Gillespie said his station is working with the team in a new partnership “to promote Latino players for the first time in Spanish.” He said WRIW will produce vignettes about the Hispanic players on the minor league team, including interviews with them.
Telemundo also offers movies, game shows, talk shows, national news shows and musical specials that include concerts with top Latino performers. Gillespie said the company recently won an exclusive contract for Hispanic coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
ZGS Communications is a Hispanic-owned broadcasting company, headquartered in Arlington, Va., that owns and operates 12 Spanish-language television stations in the country, representing the largest group of independent stations affiliated with the Telemundo television network. Besides Providence, other stations are in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers-Naples in Florida, Boston and Springfield in Massachusetts, Hartford, Conn., El Paso, Texas, Richmond, Va., and Raleigh, N.C. •
