V-me: Mario Baeza’s New Formula for Public Television.

The announcement of V-me, the first national Spanish-language network to partner with American public television, has created the kind of news splash usually associated with the likes of an NBC or a Univision.

Not only because of the excitement that a new kind of quality entertainment can generate, but also because of the innovative formula put together by Mario Baeza and a team of public television experts.

Baeza, regarded as a brilliant investor and perhaps one of the better-connected Latinos in the country, has used his private equity knowledge and his solid background in business to flip the formula upon which public television has earned its sustainment.

With the government increasingly tuning out the arts and public television, Baeza’s model brings together an innovative approach to take the more cultural medium beyond its subsidy-dependent mechanism.

Of equal interest, of course, is the fact that the idea has emanated from our Hispanic market, still more evidence of the market’s strength and even more validation of Spanish as a language to reach affluent Latinos.

Baeza, a Cornell and Harvard graduate, leads the Baeza Group, a Hispanic-owned, alternative investment firm. He has been involved in the music record industry. In 2005, he was elected Chairman of the Upper Manhattan Development Zone. During President Bill Clinton’s administration, his name was tossed around for a high-level position at the U.S. State Department.