The Billboard Q&a: Nicholas Montes

A Forrester Research study released Feb. 2 shows that U.S. Latinos are more than twice as likely as non-Latinos to stream or download music to their mobile phones, and three times more likely to download videos. Creating original mobile content is the mission of Viva Vision TV, a Latin entertainment channel that launched on Verizon's VCast service in October 2006. Billboard spoke to VP/GM Nicholas Montes as the channel prepared to roll out on aggregator Amp'd Mobile, Sprint TV, Mexican carrier TelCel and Cingular, all between February and May.

Why is mobile entertainment so popular in the Latin market?

The mobile phone for the Hispanic community is an aspirational product. To a lot of us, getting the latest phone with the latest content is a way we can make a statement that we're connected to technology and a way to say that we're hip and cool.

How does Viva Vision's music content distinguish itself?

We're out there covering the top Latin events, the club scene. We've got producers working on our behalf in some of the key markets already like Miami, L.A. and New York. We're looking at bringing on a couple of Viva Vision VJs to introduce the content. On the music side, I would say 60% of it is unsigned [artists] and 40% is indies that we've signed. Most of it is reggaetón and Latin hip-hop, and some Mexican regional. Instead of shopping around for six to 12 months for a label to pick them up, they can upload their own content, do a deal with us and see how it goes for them. Sometimes we just pay them an upfront fee, sometimes it's a revenue share, depending on the carrier. There are [some] artists who say, just give me the exposure. We're talking to all four labels, but in the meantime . . . we don't have to pay any money out to big labels.