Originally Posted by little-monster:
“The network it airs on is brand new and they have openly said that ratings do not bother them. Which in some way i don't agree with as poor ratings lead to a loss in money for the channel.”
Sometimes such a statement can be believed, for example HBO and Showtime don’t focus so much on ratings as they are premium subscription channels with no adverts, so are funded purely by subscriptions and not advertising revenue. Having said that, of course ratings are still important because if no one watches their programmes then no one will bother paying for the subscription.
But ‘El Rey’ is a basic cable channel that relies on advertising revenue as its funding. Therefore I’d agree with you, despite what they say, ratings will be important. I suspect their comment saying they aren’t important is due to the fact they are targeting a very niche audience, second and third-generation Latinos. They will be selling advertising space based on this audience so can charge more for it, so it won’t matter if the overall numbers are low as long as they are Latinos. But of course, if even low numbers of Latinos are watching then it’ll be a financial nightmare for the network.