New streaming TV channel targets Las Vegas Latinx viewers
Jose Figueroa doesn’t have a background in television.
What he has are three daughters who speak Spanish but not fluently, want to stay in touch with their heritage and spend their time on TikTok because most TV channels targeting the Latinx community do so only in Spanish.
That’s where Latino Channel TV comes in.
The English-language streaming channel, known as LaChTV, will launch Monday with two locally produced shows. “WutUp!” will take viewers to Las Vegas activities and attractions that welcome guests younger than 21, while “Food Trip Magic” will profile local restaurants.
“Obviously, we’re open to other avenues,” Figueroa says. “Latino events. Anything that deals with the Latino/Hispanic community here in town.”
LaChTV’s target audience is 10- to 25-year-old second- and third-generation Americans.
The channel’s availability via an app on Roku — it’s still awaiting approval from Amazon and Google Play — gives LaChTV an international audience of people planning to visit Las Vegas, says Figueroa, founder and CEO of iPhone Doctor.
He sees the arrangement as a win-win for local businesses still reeling from the pandemic: LaChTV gets content while they get exposure.
“We featured restaurants on the Strip, which was amazing to us,” Figueroa admits. “I thought they were going to shut the door in our face.”
LaChTV is a small startup, and Figueroa says the channel is still in the flinging-things-at-the-wall-and-seeing-what-sticks stage.
“We’re not trying to compete with Univision,” he says of the Spanish-language TV behemoth, “because we don’t have that type of funding yet. But at least we’re starting something, right?”
Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.