Billionaire Carlos Slim, one of the world's richest men, recently announced a new business venture that will be aimed directly at the United States' population of 35 million Mexican-Americans. It's called Nuestra Visión (Spanish for "Our Vision"), which will be a TV network that will purportedly transmit "Mexican content for Mexicans" directly from Mexico.
Nuestra Visión will carry news and sports programming, as well as a catalog of almost 2,000 classic and contemporary films, owned by sister companies like Publicidad y Contenido Editorial, Uno TV, and Claro Sports. This business model of using already existent programming to broadcast on network infrastructures that are also already in place, may allow it to compete with firmly entrenched Spanish language TV channels in the US like Univision and Televisa, according to a report in Forbes. Even more optimistic is the channel's official website, which states:
"We are a unique and exciting concept that is here to stay and whoever partners with us will be writing history with the most successful Mexican channel ever made!"
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Despite that optimism, Slim and the channel's CEO, Victor Herrera, have a challenge before them in today's media climate, as getting any traditional new TV channel off the ground in the US is difficult with so many competing entertainment and information options. The channel will also have to compete with the Spanish-language channel that occupies a distant third place in the United States market, behind Univision and Telemundo: Azteca América, which also borrows its programming from a sister station in Mexico. Details of the network's specific plans regarding distribution and affiliate partnerships are still to come.
There's also no word yet on a specific launch date for Nuestra Visión, so keep your eyes peeled for more details as they are made public.
