USA: VOA Reaching Large Audiences in Latin America

VOA Reaching Large Audiences in Latin America

WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 26-million adults across Latin America are now getting up-to-date news and information from Voice of America each week, thanks in part to an expanding number of affiliate stations that stretch from Mexico to Chile.

Acting Latin America Division Director Clara Dominguez says the audience numbers are the result of our, “expanding partnerships with local stations and the hard work of our journalists, who provide top notch radio, TV and online reports and live on-scene analysis of events in the United States and around the world.”

Results from questions placed on Gallup World Poll surveys in 16 Latin American countries from September through December 2012, estimate the combined past-week audience for VOA Spanish content was 26.7 million.  The figure includes a weekly audience of 18.7 million on television, 16.2 million on radio, and 8.3 million on Internet (including use of syndicated or reproduced content).

“These audience figures show our strategy is working and VOA is a key player in these vital and vibrant media markets,” says VOA Director David Ensor. “In 2012, the Spanish Service added 56 new affiliates, bringing the total number of our media partners in Latin America to 270,” Ensor says.

In addition to VOA Spanish reports and journalists being featured on many top-rated TV and radio networks in the region, VOA news and information programs produced in Washington every day reach audiences on cable channels and local radio stations.  VOA also reaches users on its Spanish website, voanoticias.com, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and partner sites.

During the selection of Pope Francis, VOA provided affiliate stations with live hourly updates from the Vatican.

The 2012 surveys suggest that more than half of VOA’s Latin American audience lives in Mexico, where nearly one in five adults (14.9 million) are reached by a VOA radio, Internet, or TV report each week.

About one third of VOA’s weekly Spanish language audience in the latest survey came from core Andean markets in Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.   Measured for the first time in many years, VOA weekly audiences in Central America totaled 2 million adults and in the Southern Cone 1.3 million.

SOURCE
http://www.insidevoa.com/content/voa-reaching-large-audiences-in-latin-america/1634282.html