• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 13, 2014

The rapidly growing U.S. Hispanic cable TV marketplace is getting even bigger thanks to TV network distributor Olympusat, which is introducing 35 new high-definition networks targeting U.S. Hispanics with an array of Spanish-language programming from across Latin America, including Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, Honduras, and Puerto Rico.

Some of the new offerings from Olympusat include Ultra Mex, a network focused on independent and contemporary Mexican film; Ultra Film, an HD network with contemporary film releases dubbed into Spanish; Ultra Cine, with a range of award-winning and original films from across Spanish-speaking Latin America; and Ultra Clasico, featuring digitally remastered movies from the “Golden Age” of Mexican and Latin American cinema.

Also included in Olympusat’s new “Ultra HD Plex” networks are channels targeting U.S. Hispanic men, women and children, as well as programming focused on music, comedy, documentaries, news and sports, including Venezuela’s Televen America, targeting affluent Hispanics; Canal 13, a family-oriented network from Chile; the Puerto Rico Network; Sun Channel, focused on travel and lifestyle content; independent Canal 44, based in Ciudad Juarez; Canal 10 from Honduras; and HMX -- El Canal del Hombre Moderno, targeting Hispanic men.

The new offerings join Olympusat’s existing networks including Cine Mexicano, CineClásico, Latele Novela Network, and Sorpresa, a network for children. The Olympusat programming is currently only available to subscribers of Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV, but will become available to all multichannel-TV distributors effective August 1st.

Media companies have been moving swiftly to expand their Spanish- and English-language video offerings targeting the U.S. Hispanic audience, including both new and syndicated programming.

In January, Hemisphere -- a media company that targets U.S. Hispanic audiences -- announced that it had entered into deals to acquire three Spanish-language cable TV networks serving the U.S. as well as abroad, from their previous owner, Imagina’s Media World, for a total of $102 million in cash. The deal included Pasiones, a cable net devoted to telenovelas and series, with a total distribution of 3.8 million subscribers in the U.S., as well as 7.2 million subscribers across Latin America; Centroamerica TV, targeting U.S. Hispanics from Central American countries with news, entertainment, and soccer programming, reaching over 3.3 million subscribers in the U.S.; and TV Dominicana, targeting Hispanics from the Dominican Republic with news, entertainment, and baseball programming, reaching over 2.2 million subscribers in the U.S.

Last year ABC joined forces with Univision to launch a new cable and satellite TV network, Fusion, targeting millennial Hispanics with English-language content, including news, comedy and sports. Univision also invested in El Rey, a new English-language cable TV network created by Comcast and director Robert Rodriguez, launched in December.