Estrella Media said it plans to launch a free ad-supported linear Movie Channel as part of its upfront presentation Monday.
Cine EstrellaTV, launching later this year, will be a 24 channel featuring Latin Cinema with a curated daily playlist of hundreds of titles. It will have drama, comedy, thrillers and documentaries.
The company also announced additional carriage for its existing businesses. FuboTV will carry Estrella’s KRCA-TV in Los Angeles and its FAST Channels EstrellaTV and Estrella News.
Samsung TV Plus will be adding Estrella Games to its channel lineup and continue to carry Estrella TV and Estrella News.
“Estrella Media is on track to have two of its most successful and innovative years in 2022 and 2023," said Estrella Media CEO Peter Markham. "We are expanding our content offerings with production partners, growing our audience through our FAST, AVOD, and streaming platforms, and distributing our content to our audience where, when, and how they choose to consume media."
Estrella said that between its FAST channels and the result of its multi platform media portfolio, it has an average monthly total reach of more than 4 billion minutes viewed.
Steve Mandala, chief revenue and local media officer at Estrella told Broadcasting+Cable that content and platform innovations are going to fuel Estrella Media’s growth.
Mandala, previously with Univision, said that over the years there’s a heightened awareness that brands need to reach out to Hispanic viewers, but there are still many that don’t.
“It’s one of those classic situations. It’s good, it’s gotten better and there’s still an opportunity to get even better for marketers who want to speak to this consumer,” he said.
Estrella offers markets a unique package of both growing linear and digital platforms, all of which is provided for free to the consumer, he said. Its audience grew 4% year over year. On top of that, most of its programming is targeted to the U.S. Hispanic consumer and produced here in the United States.
“Almost a third of our audience doesn’t watch our competitors, which means that we deliver an exclusive audience,” Mandala said. Every marketer and agency wants to extend their reach. They don’t want to just grow frequency, they want to speak to more consumers and that’s what we can help them do because we deliver that exclusive audience.”
During its virtual upfront presentation on Monday, Estrella Media promised media buyers it would have more than 600 hours of new primetime content, in addition to returning series and acquired programming.
Some of the new content will stem from Estrella’s co-production deals with TV Azeca, Endemol Shine Boomdog and Fremantle Media.
Some of the new shows include the return of reality series Rica Famosa Latina, which will be available in the fall, first on EstrellaTV’s AVOD app and then simultaneously in the U.S. on Estrella TV and in Mexico on TV Azteca; Odisea Cheta, based on the radio show Don Chetoa Al Aire and TTMT El Rancho, described as a cousin to Tengo Talento, Much Talento, in which competitors aim to win an Estrella Media Music contract.
Show produced as co-productions from EstrellaTV and TV Azteca for 2022 including La Academia, Premios de la Radio, Una Dia Para Vivir, Loteria del Crimen and Madres A Hijos.
Estrella and Endemol Shine Boomdog are jointly producing MasterChef Mexico.■
