Multichannel News' Laura Martinez finds that content providers cannot settle on a single answer to the question of what Latina TV consumers prefer.

New York -- Hispanic women make the final purchasing decisions in the household, but television content that is relevant to their lifestyle is hard to find in today’s media mix.

At least that was the feeling shared by a group of programmers, carriers and content producers who gathered this morning to tackle the question “What Women Want to See on TV” at the sixth annual Broadcasting & Cable/Multichannel News Hispanic Television Summit here Thursday.

“I want to see content that speaks to me, a Latina living in the U.S., not something that is imported from Latin America,” said Cristina Mella, editor in chief of Casa y Hogar magazine, a Spanish-language title targeted to Latino women and their families.

But Emiliano Saccone, senior vice president at Fox Latin American Channels, whose properties include the women-targeted Utilisima, refuted the point, saying that the most popular Spanish-language programs in primetime are telenovelas imported from Mexico or Venezuela.

“A young mother in Chile faces very similar problems to a young mother in the U.S.” he said. “In addition, we have to be realistic here,” said Saccone. “Producing content in the U.S., compared to Latin America, is a very expensive proposition. This is a business. There is a model and it has to be substantial...”

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