• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, September 27, 2007

MTV Tr3, the bilingual network aimed at Latino youth, will begin offering advertisers ratings from a subset of Hispanic viewers within the larger Nielsen sample.

The 1,300-home subset is referred to as the Nielsen Television Index Hispanic (NTIH) Service, and MTV Tr3's performance in it will be available to advertisers starting Oct. 1.

MTV Tr3, targeting bilingual Latinos in the 12-to-24 demo, is the only channel in the MTV Networks portfolio that has distribution on both broadcast and cable, depending on the market.

Lucia Ballas-Traynor, senior vice president and general manager of the network, said the ratings will help "demonstrate MTV Tr3s' strength in connecting with the underserved, fast-growing and highly influential Hispanic youth segment."

Nielsen no longer offers a separate Hispanic-only sample--that 15-year-old service was disbanded last month. Instead, it provides performance data among the Hispanic homes in its general market sample.

MTV Tr3 competitor mun2, a Telemundo sister network, also offers the NTIH ratings--as do Fox Sports en Espanol, Univision sister network Galavision and GolTV.

MTV Tr3 recently reached a deal giving it broadcast distribution in Manhattan. Some 30 broadcast stations carry it around the country.