MPT Adds V-me Service To Digital Offerings but Cable Reach Is Limited
By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Wild animals, rock stars, lost skiers, Mexican presidents, gun-toting guerrillas, Bangkok taxi drivers, death-cult worshipers, crusading reporters, yoga instructors, celebrity chefs and the Cookie Monster don't usually hang out in the same television neighborhood.
But that's a sampling of the programming on V-me, the 24-hour Spanish-language digital channel that Maryland Public Television launched in this market Monday.
The effect might be disorienting to any viewer accustomed to the strict rules of the 300-channel-plus universe, whereby extreme sports, thriller movies, political yakkers, fast cars, exotic travel and wholesome cartoons stick to their own home on the dial.
V-me-- pronounced "veh-meh" (a play on the Spanish phrase "veme," or "see me") -- renders the familiar formulas in Spanish and invites them onto a single lineup.
But was anyone watching? Monday's fare included a documentary on the rise and fall of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas, skillful in-the-streets reportage on Mexican devotees of "Saint Death," and interviews with a leading Latina environmentalist and the Latino executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
All those shows aired hours after executives of MPT and V-me and Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown announced the service, carried in much of Maryland on Comcast digital Channel 201.
However, V-me is not available to Comcast cable subscribers in Montgomery and Prince George's counties -- home to the vast majority of Latinos in the state -- or to cable subscribers in the District or Northern Virginia. (It is also available in parts of Maryland through Verizon's digital cable service on Channel 881.)
On Monday, Brown and Latino advocates began urging customers to contact Comcast about expanding V-me's reach. Yesterday, a spokeswoman elaborated on Comcast's distribution decision: The company does not typically carry the digital signals of more than one public television outlet in the same market, and subscribers in Montgomery, Prince George's and elsewhere across the Washington area receive the digital signal of WETA, spokeswoman Jaye Linnen said.
Linnen said Comcast evaluates all its programming "based on customer interests" and other variables, but so far, "I haven't seen a flurry of customer calls."
V-me executives said WETA earlier decided not to carry the new channel. WETA did not return a phone call yesterday seeking comment.
Launched in March, V-me is carried by public television affiliates in 23 markets nationwide.
Outside its limited digital reach, the only way to see V-me in this market is the old-fashioned way: with an antenna, over the air. In much of the local market, the signal can be picked up on Channel 22.3 with a digital TV, according to MPT.
The idea for V-me grew out of executives at WNET in New York City trying to offer more to Latino viewers. Now V-me is a private corporation, and one of its major national backers is Silver Spring-based investment firm Syncom Funds. V-me supplies programming free to public television affiliates that will carry it on cable.
It's not clear how many Spanish-speaking households in Maryland receive V-me -- Comcast does not make that information available. Nationwide, there about 11.3 million Latino households, said V-me President Carmen DiRienzo. Roughly two-thirds are bilingual or Spanish-language-dominant, and more than half of them subscribe to digital cable or satellite services.
As for V-me's eclectic programming, weekday mornings begin with the fitness show "Aire Yoga." Then come children's shows; yesterday, "Plaza Sésamo" featured "el Come Galletas," or the Cookie Monster. This Spanish-language version of "Sesame Street" is not a mere translation but an independent show that began in Mexico more than 30 years ago. Some of the channel's other children's shows were created in English-speaking countries and dubbed in Spanish, with new songs and dialogue.
A handful of the programs for adults also have been adapted from shows originally produced for English audiences. On Monday night's "Exploraciones" -- a show exploring new lands and experiences -- an American firefighter is wired to measure his stress levels and sent to run with the bulls at Pamplona.
Other shows throughout the week repackaged from a variety of international sources include "$100 de Taxi," on which a cabbie takes you on a journey in a different country each episode; "Quiero Ser" ("I Want to Be"), where young people get to hang out with idols such as Juanes and Paulina Rubio for a day; and "¿Qué Sucedió?" ("What Happened?"), which shows people amid a disastrous storm, wreck or other predicament.
V-me's original programming includes the yoga show; "Viva Voz" ("Live Voice"), the nightly showcase interview program with Jorge Gestoso; and the weekly "La Plaza," with journalist Maria Hinojosa, produced in collaboration with public television in Boston. Monday night on "Viva Voz," Gestoso interviewed Anthony Romero of the ACLU, and Hinojosa interviewed Gabriela Chavarria of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Last night, Renan "El Cucuy" Almendarez Coello, one of the most influential Latino radio DJs in the country, was on "Viva Voz." Next week, "Viva Voz" will be in New Orleans for the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
"We do encompass a variety of genres to have a full family multi-generational orientation," DiRienzo said.
She said the point -- captured in the wordplay of the network's name -- is to reflect Latinos' desire for mainstream culture to "see us for what we are -- we're multidimensional, we're interested in more than what people call quote-unquote Latino issues."
But at the moment, in most of this market, V-me is difficult to see at all.
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