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Hi this is Frank Radice for Red Touch Media and this is our continuing series on The Future
of Content and i'm here with Kevin Conroy who is the president of digital for Univision.
Kevin tell me a little about the digital process, what goes on at Univision and in terms of
digital? So it's all driven by one really central belief and that is that the thing
that's most important for us is to make sure that our content a high quality branded Univision
content experience is available to our audience everywhere that they may want to enjoy it,
consume it and so that really is the driver for us so our view is that if we can present
our content and make our content an option for our audience across any device any platform
they'll have the opportunity to choose us by definition if you don't make your content
available the audience doesn't have the opportunity to choose you so with that mind we really
took a very different look at things unlike other networks that have simply taken their
linear value proposition and extended it to digital and essentially created a digital
property or experience for any one of their individual networks we took a step back and
said this is an opportunity to do something different so we created something called UVideos
which we launched about a year ago which is the first fully bilingual digital video network
that offers a selection of content from across all our networks in one experience it's available
on the traditional web, the mobile web and as an application both for handheld devices,
tablets, consoles so UVideos is really everywhere and importantly it is a bilingual offering
so the user gets to decide what language they want to consume the content in and building
on that we then said well if that approach makes some sense for video to create more
scale around a digital video offering why don't we think about doing the same thing
for audio so we created a product called Euphoria which is for audio essentially what UVideo
is for video so all of our radio stations are streamed live through Euphoria in addition
to custom channels and a wide selection of songs for people to be able to personalize
so those are really the anchors of the different types of media offerings and then we have
some point products in addition to those. So the research has shown that the hispanic
audience over indexes very strongly in the use of digital devices, do you play to that
strength or is it something that doesn't even matter, it's just that you've got to be in
the space? Yeah no it matters a lot I mean I think it's fair to say at this point now
that you know we're into 2014 it's hard to talk to anybody that doesn't talk about the
importance of video and mobile and I think if you're not focused on those two things
then you're really lagging the market, the difference is we've been focused on those
two things for awhile and the intersection of video and mobile is really in the sweet
spot of what our audience is really all about so unlike the general market which really
in the US really lagged with respect to mobile penetration and as i'm sure most people know
Europe and Asia and parts of Latin America were well ahead of the United States with
respect to mobile adoption our audience meaning hispanics in the United States have actually
been behaving and living their lives connected to mobile in a way that was more similar to
Latin America, Asia and Europe ahead of the general market and so because our audience
was already using a variety of mobile devices as the market started to move to mobile it
actually moved to them and so it really plays a very central role I mean people talk about
mobile first we are mobile first so as we think about products as we think about how
we build and integrate and develop our product road map we start with mobile and we actually
have the other forms of our product other form factors follow mobile. It's interesting
because it almost sounds like what has been discussed here at this event as second screen
is really primary screen. Yeah there are a lot of different terms that get thrown out
first screen, second screen, third screen I think the things that's most important is
to realize that people are consuming in different ways even during the different times of the
day I think entirely too much of the conversation has been made out to be solely generational
as if older generations consume one way and younger generations consume a different way
I would say it differently I would say that perhaps older generations or older demographics
maybe they consume in a more narrow way and maybe younger people could consume in a broader
way, maybe their aperture is a little wider but there's no question that there's a range
of experiences and I think that really starts to lead into a whole discussion of social
and I think what's important there is people talk about social as if it's one thing and
I would argue that social is at least two things maybe more right? there's a bit of
social which has to do with how you connect with people within your network around the
content that interests you most that may or may not be exactly directly connected to what
you're watching but then there's this other thing called social TV which is very much
connected to what it is that you're experiencing on a particular screen right? and so the first
screen, second screen and even third screen experiences I think have far more to do with
a directly connected viewing experience and what you can or might want to do to augment
that kind of viewing experience whereas social media is really how you go about amplifying
a connection that you have with other people around a shared interest which may be content.
And you know in anyone of those examples we're still talking about that content creates the
context which generates a conversation is in essence and that works for social as well
as traditional television I think to me what I find interesting about the Univision proposition
is you're such a big media company you have broadcast television you have cable television
you have radio, you have a tremendous digital platform in UVideos you have everything that
you're about ready to do with authentication and television everywhere all of these things
makes for probably, correct me if i'm wrong one of the biggest media companies in the
world and traditional television wise you guys had a magnificent February. We did and
I think I appreciate you pointing that out because the reality is that Univision is a
unique company I mean it's a company with a very proud and I think is deservedly so
proud history of innovation you know it started more than 50 years ago with a single station
in San Antonio today it represents 14 networks 62 owned or operated television stations 69
owned or operated radio stations plus a big and expanding digital footprint so we really
have evolved to become a true multi media company, we also have some really unique advantages
I think as a media company because unlike some others you know our brand really means
something to our audience there is a very significant connection between our audience
and our brand and what our brand represents and a infinity with the kinds of content and
experience that our audience has come to expect and that has in turn I think helped to fuel
the creation of a really powerful culture at Univision that's really, it's a mission
and it feels like a mission because everyones very focused on serving the audience and everything
that's serving the audiences means it's not just about creating a viewing experience it's
about creating a connection and I think one of the coolest things about what's happened
with technology is that a lot of the innovations have actually made it even more possible for
us to be able to create these kinds of connections that we aspire to create both with existing
audiences and also new audiences. Now that brings to mind of course the new bilingual
audiences that you're gathering from Fuchsia or from LA. And also interestingly within
our core offering because we've been experiencing on digital now for several years a percentage
of our audience on digital has actually been enjoying engaging with us in english although
it's culturally always relevant always through the lens of what's appropriate and culturally
relevant for hispanics but we saw you know I'll use the example of 2010 Copa Mundial
the world cup we noticed for the first time when we integrated social media functionality
facebook and other features into the media playback experience a lot of the comments
and the commentary and the way people were exchanging you know thoughts and passion around
the games was in english and so that really at the end of the day what it says to us is
our job is to create and deliver a compelling experience make it as easy and accessible
as we can across all the different ways that people want to consume and most importantly
choice wins giving the audience, giving the user the ability to choose the experience
to decide how it is they want to consume whether it be active, passive, sharing, not. You know
those are choices that really should be made at the user level and I think our job is to
make sure those choices are available to them to be able to make those decisions. So what's
the secret sauce to take all of these concepts and integrate them with sales? Well I think
it's really understanding where is the value right? and I think at the end of the day our
job I think is to establish the right kind of balance and bridge and relationship between
engaging audiences and delivering value to marketers who want to reach those audiences
and I think we're pretty good at that and I think that we're getting better as it relates
to how you go about packaging different forms of media and I think as an industry, as a
company I think the industry has come a long way in bridging and packaging what has been
traditional linear media with newer forms of digital media I think there's still some
work in progress around things like social so for example you know people do kind of
typically want to think of social as all one thing and I do think it's different things
both for the reasons I mentioned earlier the difference between social media and social
television but it's also different through the lens of how you think about social relative
to what the content offering is and how you define what is content, is a tweet a content
is a post content, etc. That's one piece of it social as a way of engaging audiences and
the importance of engagement as a metric beyond in addition to reaching frequency and then
ultimately your point about monetization and I think with social I think we're at a point
where I think it helps to amplify I think it helps to deepen and enrich the experience
I actually think it's a mistake to try to think about how to package and sell social
on a stand alone home basis I think social is a piece of the puzzle, I don't think it's
the puzzle. I also think it's interesting to consider social as one of those tools that
can help you in a C3 argument or a c7 argument that you can beyond the day of air so that
can be a tool that can help to you to be used as a marketing tool or promotional tool. Yeah
I think you're right I think today the value is mostly we need to be careful right because
it's never black and white or rarely black and white I think most of the value is around
the content experience and the ways in which you can engage and enrich and extend the audience
I do think there's monetary value to be fair but I just think that that monetary value
should be derived by packaging it as a part of something not something that's stand alone
and the subject of measurement which is an important to one to touch on you know I think
measurement has really been kind of a big hurdle in this process over the course of
the last 10 years because in many ways I think the expectations for not just social but digital
in general have been very high and the great promise of being able to you know reach people
in a more efficient effective way but the only way to prove all of that out is the ability
to measure. Yeah. And I think the digital industry did itself frankly a little bit of
a disservice more than 10 years ago in it's initial you know kind of come to market it
set itself up almost against other platforms and I candidly think that that was a mistake
I think at the end of the day this is really about, this should be about and I think it
is about total audience the ability to engage across a variety of different platforms and
devices and ultimately realize that what you're trying to do at the end of the day is delight
someone in a content experience that's really interesting to them and something that hopefully
want to share with other people right? and so the only way to get a full picture of that
is to actually look at the full picture and I think some of the measurement stuff that
we've been dealing with for 10 years has not been helpful because it's kind of grown up
in pockets it's really hard to put it all together and ultimately I believe that the
value of digital is in it's accretive benefit how it adds to the whole and how it expands
you know to sort of the value of media not the idea of pushing value from one place to
the other cause it's not about one platform or the other it's about the audience. I think
it's pretty clear that digitalize it was sold originally not the holy grail and it wasn't
going to be the one thing that was going to take over from the other it's not the Jeff
Zucker dollars against the analog dollars against digital pennies, but i do think that
there's an argument to be made that digital can be utilized as a tool to gather data by
giving data for that data then you can get those numbers that then you can aggregate
and figure out what is the story behind that. And as long as that's done with full transparency
I think there's no problem at all I think we've learned really really learned and in
many times the hard way that the audiences that have engaged and really are really sort
of rich in a digital context are audiences that are using the point I made earlier about
choice there audiences that have grown up and are used to being able to make choices
about where they want to go, what they want to do, how they want to consume etc etc. and
I think a lot of the debate around the data, data gathering, data sharing is because of
practices that were not transparent and so I think sometimes it's oversimplified in should
it be opt in should it be opt out what can people do with data etc I think you start
if you start with the lens that it's about transparency if you give the user the ability
to choose what it is that they are willing to share and on what basis I think we'd be
having a very different conversation. And of course in the end it's really about the
user being able to enjoy content. That's it you know the industry looks complicated because
it is and there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle that are somewhat challenging for people
to understand particularly in a world of monetization where all of a sudden you hear people talking
about native premium experiences and pro diynamic and what it is that really means and private
exchanges there's a lot of language that's frankly challenging for a lot of people to
really understand what's going on, the goal is really simple however alright the goal
at the end of the day is all about content it always has been it always will be yes content
and distribution are inextricably linked and they together are how people go about accessing
and enjoying but if you're not making great content compelling content high quality content
then there's not a lot more to talk about if you are well then there's a starting point
for something I think is pretty exciting because I think over the arc of now 10-15 years I
think it's pretty cool that people can now access and enjoy content that they're passionate
about in so many new ways and we're seeing that evidence by just how many more people
are at the table consuming content right now we need to sort down the balance of a lot
of business issues measurement issues etc. to make sure that the economy and the ecosystem
thrives because only if we have a successful robust economy around digital will it continue
to evolve I think in a very exciting way. Fantastic conversation thank you that's Kevin
Conroy the president of digital for Univision this is Frank radice, see you next time.