Program distributor Olympusat said it has purchased Sorpresa, the Hispanic children's programming service now in about 1 million U.S. cable homes.
Sorpresa, which had been owned by Firestone/Juniper Content Corp., will be become one of 11 channels in Olympusat's Hispanic Pack of Spanish-language services, the buyer said. Also in that suite are include Cine Mexicano, Gran Cine, Ultra Latino, Latele Novela, TV Colombia, La Familia Cosmovision, TV Chile, Cable Noticias, Momentum TV, and TBN Enlace.
Sale terms were not disclosed.
Olympusat president Tom Mohler said in a release:"The addition of Sorpresa to our Spanish-language package now provides us with a well-rounded offering of services that includes all genres: movies, novelas, news, sports, dramas, inspirational and family programming, and top quality children's content."
Sorpresa is currently distributed by Comcast, Cablevision, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, participating National Cable TV Cooperative systems and in Puerto Rico on Liberty Cable Systems, and OneLink.
Multichannel Newsrecently reported that several top Sorpresa executives, including chairman and CEO Stuart Rekant and programming senior VP Maria Badillo, had left the company ahead of a possible sale of the kids-focused service, which was founded in March 2003.
Olympusat, an affiliate of Ocean Communications based in West Palm Beach, Fla., owns, operates and distributes independent linear and non-linear digital networks and currently represents more than 30 diverse channels through its Hispanic, Digital and Faith & Families services. A turnkey service provider, Olympusat facilitates technical related services for the transponder and uplink along with affiliate sales and marketing services. Olympusat suites are distributed via Intelsat satellite Galaxy 23.
