El Rey Network, influenced by the lives of core male viewers who have embraced its programming over the last three years, will expand its focus to include a surging audience it calls "Strivers." "Strivers" represents the new working and middle class male viewers who hold strong core beliefs about the importance of family, independence, hard work, craftsmanship, and legacy, which defy typical age and race metrics and speak more to the notion of "living by a code." The network appeals to an audience of a sociographic class, rather than defining its audience by traditional age and race categories.
"Strivers are important because they represent every race and region of the country and consume more hours of linear cable television each week than any other socioeconomic group. Additionally, Strivers are loyal to brands, and spend large portions of their household incomes against consumer categories that are important to advertisers. We see appealing to Strivers as a huge opportunity for El Rey and its partners," said EL REY NETWORK president and general manager Daniel Tibbets. Remaining true to its founding mission as "The People's Network," the lifestyle channel, established by maverick filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, is steadily transforming into a global multi-platform brand that appeals to aspirational, independent-spirited, and culturally diverse viewers everywhere. "El Rey Network launched in 2013 as a network targeting English-speaking Hispanic males. As our distribution grew it became apparent that our programming appeals to a much larger psychographic. We also learned major lessons from this last election cycle, where we saw large portions of the population who felt their voices weren't represented in media. A closer look revealed that class and socioeconomics were the driving forces behind this disconnect," said Tibbets. "So we made a strategic decision to focus the brand voice on the new working class and middle class where El Rey naturally serves a diverse group of males, which we've identified as 'Strivers.' The El Rey brand voice that's aspirational, authentic and inclusive, offering hero/anti-hero stories with both strong male and female characters, inherently speaks to this audience."The EL REY NETWORK Diversity Report can be viewed here El Rey Network Diversity Report.
As it works to better serve its existing and growing audience of Strivers, El Rey plans to further develop its original programming across all platforms - linear, digital, social, brand integration and experiential - transitioning from a U.S. network to a global lifestyle brand. With its current original series' as a foundation, this will include scripted series, movies, reality, competition, health/lifestyle, late-night and user-generated content, to be announced in the months ahead.
Please note: Sources for statistics above include the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Simmons Market Research Bureau, Pew Research Center, and Nielsen, among others.
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