Latino Viewers To Nielsen’s Hispanic Television Index: Niche, Please!

The separate system that TV ratings behemoth Nielsen Media Research used to measure the popularity of Spanish-language networks among Latino viewers is no more. The company’s execs plan to scrap the 15 year-old Hispanic Television Index to reflect the idea that the viewers it used to target have crawled out of their niche and onto the big picture of the nation’s overall ratings scheme. (That is, 1,400 Latino households among the 12,000 equipped with Nielsen’s equivalent of lojack.) Naturally, media types wanting to cash in on their brown brethren’s viewing patterns are beside themselves with glee:

Said Danielle Gonzales, managing director of Chicago-based Tapestry, a top agency that specializes in Latino media: “This is a turning point — the television industry has acknowledged the strength of the Hispanic population.”

Now, if only it could translate that knowledge into programming more original than dubbed-over episodes of “The Simpsons”, dubbed-over professional wrestling, and that “MTV Grind” carbon copy known as “Caliente.” (Wishful thinking, we know.)