Spanish-language streaming service Canela.TV launches original shows

Aspiring Hispanic streamer takes a big step towards original content.

Canela Media to present daily entertainment news show ¡Ponle Canela! on its streaming platform Canela.TV on October 10. “Secretos De Villanas”, a reality show in which some famous telenovela actresses roof to reveal the secrets of their lives and careers, will premiere on October 20th.

By launching its own original content, Canela.TV is following in the footsteps of much larger and more mature streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, which have historically attracted audiences to licensed content in the hope that they will stay watching original series and movies. .

The move takes Canela Media even further into the crowded streaming ecosystem. But founder Isabel Rafferty said the company is finding its niche in being able to better serve the Hispanic community in the US.

“When I launched Canela, there was a lot of talk about streaming wars, but all services were focused on just one segment, the overall market,” Rafferty said. “Some services might have a section for Hispanics, but that was an afterthought, you had to scroll, scroll, scroll, and that would be deprecated.”

Canela.TV and its ad-supported streaming channels launched in 2020, shortly after the coronavirus pandemic took hold and viewers were staying at home more. The streaming service aims to provide a wide range of free content for Spanish-speaking communities. It currently hosts licensed content from various Spanish-speaking countries and outlets, including classic films, Hallmark films, and more recent competitive television series.

Rafferty said she was partly inspired to launch the site by the relative lack of options for Hispanic viewers who don’t have a pay TV subscription or access to established networks like Telemundo and Univision.

According to data provider Samba TV, these networks and other Spanish-language content have captured some of the fastest growing traditional TV audiences when it comes to average daily home viewing.

“Demand for Spanish-language offerings and original programming is skyrocketing,” said Dallas Lawrence, senior vice president of Samba TV.

Initially, Rafferty looked for shows and films in countries such as Colombia and Argentina because most Latin American content in the US is based in Mexico. According to her, she wanted to showcase the various representations of the Hispanic community. Since then, the service has added 20,000 hours of content.

Canela said its streaming platform, available in the US, Mexico and Colombia, has 23 million unique users. Similar ad-supported free streaming services such as Paramount Global’s Pluto and Fox’s Tubi have said they have about 70 million and 51 million active users, respectively.

As his audience grew, Rafferty said the move to add original shows was key. Canela received $32 million in the Series A funding round earlier this year and was able to start creating his own content. By the end of 2022, it will have 537 hours of original content.

“Streaming services and just media in general can be extremely capital-intensive ventures, and the way Isabelle [Rafferty] went for it — starting with licensed content based on revenue sharing to create a really huge library of diverse content — it was incredibly smart,” said Susan Line of BBG Ventures, an early investor in Canela.

Rafferty said she thinks it’s important to have an ad-supported platform that offers content for free: Research has shown that most of the Hispanic community has never had a pay TV subscription, and Canela wanted to make content easily accessible to everyone, she said.

She added that ad space on the platform sells out on a monthly basis, with top consumer companies often buying space. She says she plans to keep the ad-supported business model alive for as long as possible, if not forever, even as the service faces increasing competition.

Earlier this year, Spanish-language news outlet Telemundo launched own streaming brand Tplus as a hub on the NBCUniversal Peacock platform. Tplus offers original content that Peacock subscribers can access in ad-supported tiers for $4.99 or ad-free tiers for $9.99. Similarly, TelevisaUnivision launched a free, ad-supported streaming platform called Vix and in July began offering Vix+, a premium subscription service.

Major streaming services including Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max also offer libraries of content in Spanish.

After the initial debut of Canela’s original programming, the company plans to add Bocetos, a young adult series set in present-day Mexico, and Mi Vida, a series that revolves around Latin American celebrities and their path to stardom. These screenings are expected later in October and November.

By December, the company will launch a separate streaming service, Canela Kids, for its young viewers, which will also feature exclusive and original content. Canela.TV has already begun to add some children’s programs and claims that they have become the most popular programs.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC, Telemundo and Peacock.