Latino television viewers would tune in to more English-language programming if there were more shows with Secondary Audio Programming (SAP).

According to the 2009 Hispanic Consumer Survey on SAP, commissioned by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), 80 percent of respondents had used SAP. Furthermore, 88 percent would tune to English-language networks if SAP were easier to find.

The study was conducted by Latino Print Network and surveyed 633 readers from 39 Spanish-language newspapers in 17 U.S. markets.

"There are Spanish-speaking consumers eager to watch English-language programs if they are dubbed with Spanish audio," said Carlina Rodríguez, SAG's director of Spanish-language organizing.

Longtime Spanish-language media executive José Cancela believes SAP creates broad opportunities for English-language networks. In October 2008, Cancela worked on the Spanish-language dubbing of the syndicated "Oprah Winfrey Show." Stations offering Oprah en Español are comprised of KABC-Channel 7 in Los Angeles, WABC-Channel 7 in New York, WLS-Channel 7 in Chicago, WFOR-Channel 4 in Miami, WFAA-Channel 8 in Dallas and KHOU-Channel 11 in Houston.

The inaugural sponsor for the SAP and closed-captioning of "Oprah" is Target, which enjoys brand ownership of the Spanish-language web page for Winfrey's show with two banner ads (Hispanic Market Weekly archives 10/31/2008).

"SAP is the future for general market networks," says Cancela. "The dubbing can be done quickly these days, especially with international distribution rights. For the user, technology has made it easier to access the SAP feed. But people don't understand SAP because it's never been explained."

At present just a handful of scripted English-language television series offer SAP; most of the dubbing work is handled by a Los Angeles-based pool of 100-200 bilingual SAG members.

When survey respondents were asked which network prime-time shows they had watched in the past three months via SAP, 35 percent said Fox's longtime animated series "The Simpsons." Twenty-three percent said ABC's "Ugly Betty," and 22 percent said CBS's "CSI Miami."

Fox's animated series regularly top the list of English-language programs watched in Nielsen-rated Hispanic homes. "CSI," "CSI: Miami," and "CSI: NY" all attract strong audiences for CBS, while "Ugly Betty" has seen significant audience erosion in its new Friday evening slot on ABC.

Nevertheless, Rodríguez believes advertising opportunities abound for the savvy CMO who wishes to target Hispanics with a multicultural spot on a television show offering SAP capabilities.

"At a time when Spanish-language television networks dominate the ratings, the U.S. English-language networks and advertisers may be missing out on a lucrative opportunity to expand their audience nationwide," she said.

Cancela believes the challenge to increasing SAP distribution is on the marketing side. Neither the programmers nor the distributors want to make the investment in marketing the feature, he says.

"Distributors find it hard to justify an investment in marketing SAP because they would use up marketing dollars that are designed to promote the show," says Cancela. "Programmers don't want to pay for the marketing, either."

Cancela - who also worked with King World Productions on the SAP feed for CBS's sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" - sees a possible solution.

With the creation of a co-op or SAP council, programmers could deposit marketing dollars used toward educating viewers about the Spanish-language option.

The first network to offer the bulk of its prime-time programming in Spanish via SAP is ABC.

In July 2006, the network added popular dramas "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives" to its programs getting dialogue en español.

Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, said at the time, "Increasing the number of shows dubbed into Spanish reflects our commitment to successfully connecting with the millions of Hispanics who watch mostly or only Spanish-language television."

But has the debate over whether dubbing will attract greater numbers of Latinos to English-language networks ebbed? In a September 2005 interview with Hispanic Market Weekly, Tony Ruiz, a partner at New York-based Latino shop The Vidal Partnership, said, "Hispanics who are watching English-language television are comfortable with the language. The viewer that isn't there is not absent because of language, he's not watching because the programming isn't relevant or compelling."

• This story is an adaptation of an article that originally appeared in the November 2, 2009 edition of the weekly Hispanic Market Weekly newsletter. To learn how you can receive the industry's most-trusted news and information source, contact Tim Martinson at tmartinson@hispanicmarketweekly.com.