Despite AZN’s demise and iaTV’s (formerly ImaginAsian TV) moves to broaden its audience, operators and programmers remain confident there is a real demand for networks targeting Asian-Americans, especially those offering foreign-language content.

English-language networks aimed at the children and grandchildren of immigrants are “nice-to-have channels,” but it’s the “in-language channels that have the most value,” said Rob Thun, senior vice president of programming for AT&T’s U-Verse TV, an AZN affiliate.

While Comcast-owned AZN, which targeted Asians born or raised in the U.S., reported 13.9 million subscribers, most of the current crop of Asian-language channels count viewership in the tens and hundreds of thousands. But viewer loyalty is high.

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