The same day Jay Leno launched his primetime NBC TV talk
show, a Spanish-language network made its national debut: After securing
coverage in 69% of U.S. Hispanic households, Liberman Broadcasting Media this
week officially launched Estrella TV as a national network in hopes to compete
head to head with Univision and Telemundo for the coveted audience and ad
dollars.
Estrella TV, which offers a mix of variety, family contests andreality shows,
has a strategy in place to leverage the over 5,000 hours of original
programming hailing from its California
studios.
At launch, coverage was secured via 17 affiliates and seven
owned-and-operated stations in major Hispanic markets, although the company is
still negotiating deals in Chicago,
Washington D.C.
and Philadelphia.
In its latest affiliation agreement, this month LBI
signed a multicast deal with WPIX-TV in New York,
the Tribune Broadcasting-owned flagship of The CW. Starting Oct. 1, WPIX will
carry Estrella on channel 11.2.
WPIX also carries LATV on a digital multicast basis.
