Discovery knows no boundaries.

• Author: Heuer, Robert
• Position: Discovery Channel-Latin America

Spanish-Language news, U.S. - made action/adventure shows, soccer games, and nature programs are the favorite television fare for Latin Americans, according to a recent survey commissioned in part by the Discovery Channel-Latin America along with other regional programmers. As a result, the programmer intends to tailor its network to include more nature and animal-life programs that appeal to viewers from Mexico to Argentina.

Quantifying likes and dislikes of Latin American viewers is uncharted territory. Indeed, a Discovery Channel spokesperson claims this is the first pan-regional study of its kind and will cut through assumptions and help them shape programming for the Latin American audience.

The survey, which included 5,767 in-person interviews with people aged twelve to sixty-four, took place last fall in eighteen countries, including Puerto Rico. It represented a sampling of 90 percent of the Latin American market -- a 274-million-consumer audience that the Discovery Channel is eager to court.

Presenthg high-quality, nonfiction entertainment programming, the Discovery Channel program in five genres -- science and technology, nature, history, world culture, and human adventures. With production costs ranging between US$2-5 million per program, the company decided two years ago that, instead of letting its investment collect dust, it could amortize the production expense by taking its video programming abroad.

Available in the U.S. since 1985, Discovery Communications, Inc., the parent company of the...