Being the Consummate Hispanic Entrepreneur
A man of many talents Jeff Valdez’s rich and fruitful career made an indelible mark on what Hispanic entertainment is today
By all accounts Jeff Valdez accomplished a lot in his career. He is a consummate Hispanic entrepreneur, a media pioneer who co-founded the Hispanic cable channel Sí TV, co-created of a TV show and has won a string of awards. Some of Jeffs achievements includeOne of the Top 50 People Who Matter, CNN, The Racial Harmony Award, Center For Ethnic Understanding, Top 50 Minorities In Cable, Multichannel News and was also named one of “The Top 50 Marketers in America” Advertising Age. Mr. Valdez watched his brainchild Sí TV become the forerunner to Nuvo TV in 2011. Sí TV was ground breaking in 2004 . The new cable network served Latinos ages 18 to 34 with a full slate of English-language programming, Sí TV generated quite a bit of buzz immediately off its launch that February. Although it started 2004 with virtually no advertisers, Sí TV had 34 by years end. The network the quickly grew to 60, including Burger King, Suzuki, and General Motors. Its also saw its audience share grow in excess of 40 percent to more than 10 million viewers. In September of that year, Sí TV received five first-place awards for marketing and communications programming during the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications 19th annual conference in New York. That same month, the network announced promotional deals with XM Satellite Radio, Universal Motown, The New York Latino Film Festival, Fuego magazine, and Vidagirl.com. Not bad for a venture that had been roundly dismissed as a conceptual nonstarter by a succession of broadcasting executives and investors. Mr. Valdez resisted self-congratulatory remarks for what he accomplished because he realized that in some cases his doubters had good reason to bet against him. Truth be told, Sí TV had an unusually long gestation period. When he and partner Bruce Barshop founded the company to develop, produce, and distribute English-language programming for Latinos eight years prior, the pair expected to have a network up and running within six months. Then theres the matter of being politic in a town where connections are exceedingly valuable commodities. A show-business veteran, Mr. Valdez knows all too well that success has a way of making allies of erstwhile detractors.From Pueblo Colorado to Europe
The youngest of nine children, Mr. Valdez was born and grew up in humble circumstances in Pueblo, Colorado. After high school, he ventured to Europe, where he drummed for a variety of bands over the course of a few months, before relocating to Colorado Springs. There he worked in mobile-home and drill-bit factories, in between doing a stint as a janitor. Convinced his destiny lay with music, he soon headed back out on the road, however, touring the country with a couple of bands for the better part of the next decade. Upon returning to Colorado Springs, Mr. Valdez had designs on being an entrepreneur opened Comedy Corner, a club that would go on to help launch the careers of Roseanne Barr, Sinbad, and others. By this time, Mr. Valdez himself had begun to dabble in stand-upat the urging of band matesand he honed his act at the club.From Colorado to Los Angeles
He headed to Los Angeles in 1993, intent on making it as a stand-up comic but ultimately working as a TV writer. That year he began producing Comedy Compadres, a showcase of young Hispanic comedians that aired on Los Angeles KTLA-TV in 1993 and 1994. The success of that program took him to San Antonio, site of the inaugural Latino Laugh Festival, and into the orbit of Mr. Barshop, an investment banker and real estate developer, in 1996. The two collaborated on the latter eventa multi-day showcase of Hispanic comedic talent that was soon picked up by Showtimeand the following year, after Mr. Valdez spent time developing pilots for Tri-Star Television, they founded Sí TV. Their timing seemed impeccable. Demographic indicators at the time clearly pointed to an emerging Hispanic presence nationwide. Yet the idea of a network to serve the Hispanic communitys younger segment elicited barely a yawn in television and investment circles. It seemed like such a logical thing to do given the market, and it was just bizarre how everyone couldnt be convinced. It was a very difficult sell to begin with, Mr. Valdez says. To demonstrate the viability of his concept, he created The Brothers Garcia for the Nickelodeon childrens network. A family comedy narrated by John Leguizamo, the program began airing in 2000 and became a hit. Mr. Valdez went on to produce and write 48 episodes of the series, which still airs in reruns. (Ironically, Mr. Valdez recently had to turn down an opportunity to run old episodes of The Brothers Garcia for the reason that the show doesnt fit his networks target audience.) Sí TV also produced the talk show Cafe Olé with Giselle Fernandez and the stand-up comedy showcase Funny is Funny! for Univisions cable outlet, Galavision. The latter remains a part of Sí TVs programming lineup. All the while, Mr. Valdez continued telling journalists and anyone else who would listen that the launch of Sí TVthe networkwas imminent. In fact, however, it was still years off. The problem, he now says, was that broadcast operators wouldnt agree to carry his channel if he didnt have funding, and investors wouldnt provide capital without a distribution agreement. I never lost confidence in the concept. All we needed was a chance. I knew it would fly as soon as we could arrange financing and distribution, he says. Things finally came together last year, with the company receiving more than $60 million in operating capital from EchoStar, Time Warner, Syndicated Communications Ventures, Columbia Capital, Rho Ventures, DND Capital Partners, Llano Partners, and company co-founder Barshop Ventures. Sí TV had already completed affiliation agreements with Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox Communications, and EchoStars DISH Network. Earlier this year, the network announced a distribution agreement with Verizon, which will carry the channel on its newly launched Verizon FiOS TV service. Our first outside investor was Syndicated Communications Ventures. Then we got Rho and Time Warner and the others. Interestingly, not 1 red cent came from Hollywood. Instead had to go to places like Austin, San Antonio, Washington, D.C., Boston, New York, and Denver, says Mr. Valdez. Original programming accounted for about 60 percent of the networks schedule, with the balance being acquired fare such as reruns of Resurrection Boulevard, American Family, and Dark Angel. Sí TV also aired the syndicated program American Latino TV, a half-hour, magazine-style show that highlights U.S. Latino culture. That program and others with a clear youth emphasis, such as the music variety show The Drop, are more indicative of the networks overall tone, though. In press materials, Sí TV touted its hip and irreverent programming. You have to remember that this was not a broadcast model. Its cable and therefore more narrowly focused. We needed to stay focused on 18-to-34 demographic. Thats why we didnt do news or sports. It was lifestyle entertainment, and the focus is on comedy. Thats my background after all, says Mr. Valdez. He was particularly excited about Laugh Out Loud, for which hes written a few sketches. Just to make sure I havent lost my chops, he says. He also occasionally performs in area comedy clubs. These days, however, Mr. Valdezs days were mostly devoted to supervisory duties. As chairman, he oversaw everything that was produced at the networks 106,000-square-foot facility in Los Angeles. Sí TV has about 65 full-time employees. Further bolstering its profile, the network had began to attract big-name executive talent. Over that summer Michael Schwimmer was named Sí TVs first CEO. He also served as executive vice president of programming and marketing for DISH Network. Carl Vogel, vice chairman of EchoStar, was named to Sí TVs board of directors. Mr. Valdez was the public face of the network and its heart soul, though. In July 2005, Sí TV announced a $600,000 contribution to La Raza Development Fund, for instance, it was Mr. Valdez who handed over the check. Not surprisingly, hes collected more than his share of professional honors. Quite Simply, the market has gotten to the point where the numbers can no longer be ignored, he says.Appendix
In April 2006, Valdez stepped down as head of programming of Sí TV. Edward R. Leon, the network’s senior vice president of production, assumed the additional role of acting head of programming.
Sí TV logo (200811)
