Pluto TV has emerged as a pioneer in the FAST space in the US since its launch in 2014, and in 2019 became one of the first to service the Hispanic market with Pluto TV en Español, where they started with 11 channels and have almost reached 50 in 2023.
“Today, we have almost 50 channels dedicated to crime, telenovelas, movies, drama, music, and much more. We are always growing and listening to that audience. We have devoted ourselves to assembling a team of Hispanics and Latinos; human curation is crucial for the company. Our in-Spanish team is always looking for opportunities to serve that audience with the content they need,” said Peter Chávez, Senior Programming Manager of Pluto TV en Español.
Hispanic Heritage Month (celebrated annually in the US from September 15 to October 15) “is one of the biggest moments for the in-Spanish category,” said Chávez.
He highlighted that for this year, they had the opportunity to offer some Latin American series with Paramount. “A sampling of four titles produced by the Paramount team in Latin America: the series Los Enviados, Cecilia, and Días Mejores, and the film Uno Para Morir with Maribel Verdú and Manuel Cardona. We achieved this thanks to the Latin American team, and it has been super successful for us.”
He mentioned that they always see growth in the in-Spanish segment. “That is why we have increased our channels and offer more movies and more variety in channels. For Hispanic Heritage Month, we launched Classical Cinema for that audience and expanded our music channels with MTV Latino Flow. With the VEVO team, we launched two Latin Icons channels for more retro music and VEVO Regional Mexicano dedicated to that genre.”
Chávez explained that they launched the Classic Cinema channel because the data showed that the audience consumes a lot of titles from the Golden Era of Mexican cinema. Crime and novels are two other popular genres for Hispanics. “We premiere new novels on the Novelas channels La Abuela and Amantes del Romance. We always look at the data to see what area we can focus on and continue to grow.”
Asked about the future of the FAST space within the US Hispanic, Chávez said: “We see that there is still a lot of opportunity for the FAST market in the US, that the Hispanic population in the US continues to grow, and its influence is increasing. We saw it with Shakira and Karol G at the VMAs. I think there is a lot of opportunity on the FAST side because it is a fact that Hispanics outperform the general average in streaming usage. At Pluto TV, we continue to look for ways to improve. Entertainment is always the goal.”
View the trailer at Pluto TV en Español celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month