If You Hate Ads, Watch Spanish TV

Spanish-language TV is missing something. Ads.

While English-language networks spend 12 minutes and 30 seconds of every hour of primetime programming broadcasting commercials, Spanish-language networks Univision, Telemundo and TeleFutura show an average of only 8 minutes and 40 seconds of advertising. That's 31 percent fewer commercials, according to a report released by media agency MindShare using data from TNS Media Intelligence.

The Spanish-speaking audience has less to fast-forward through on TiVo because the shows are often produced in other countries, says Debbie Solomon, senior partner and research director at MindShare. In Mexico, hour-long TV shows are produced with five more minutes of content than U.S.-made shows, she said. So the Spanish-language stations require five minutes less advertising and promotions to fill up the hour.

Of course, the networks can edit down the international programming if they so desire. But there hasn't been as high a demand for advertising space on Spanish-language networks as there has been for their English-language counterparts, she said. In 2006, advertisers spent $40 billion on ad space to air commercials on the English-language broadcast networks, and $4.3 billion for airtime on the Spanish-language TV networks, according to a TNS report.

"It's entirely conceivable and in fact probable that as the demand increases for the Spanish-language networks, the number of commercial minutes is going to increase," Solomon says.

That extra four minutes of ads per hour might not be far away. The amount of money advertisers spent buying ad-time on Spanish-language TV increased 13.9 percent in 2006 over 2005, according to TNS Media Intelligence. That's almost double the growth rate from 2004 to 2005. But much of the growth can be attributed to the World Cup. "That was a large one-time infusion of advertising money into the market place and that helped lift the overall rate of growth for 2006," said Jon Swallen, Senior Vice President, Director of Research for TNS. Even if the 2006 growth rate was temporary, it's still growing faster than what advertisers are spending to air national commercials on the English-language broadcast networks.

This is the first year that Spanish-language TV networks were included in its annual Clutter Watch report, so MindShare is yet to report a trend. But overall, the report showed the amount of "clutter," which includes commercials, promotions and public service announcements, during primetime hours remained flat. ABC aired the most ads and promotions than any other broadcast network, while MTV took the crown for cable.

Spanish-language TV networks were unavailable for comment by press time.

By Willow Duttge