Fresh from pitching its new network at NATPE, LBI Media announced that it has signed affiliation agreements for Estrella TV to air on four Texas stations owned by Communications Corporation of America (CCA). That will add about 5% of US Hispanic households to the Estrella footprint.
CCA will put the new national Spanish television network on digital multicast channels of four full-power TV stations: KVEO-TV (NBC) Brownsville-McAllen (the 10th largest US Hispanic market), KTSM-TV (NBC) El Paso (16th), KWKT-TV (Fox) Waco (45th) and KETK-TV (NBC) Tyler-Longview (67th). As part of the agreement, all four affiliates will have national sales representation from LBI’s wholly owned Spanish Media Rep Team (SMRT), which has been operating for 13 years.
“Our new affiliates will immediately benefit from our unique and original programming, strong ratings, and national sales organization that will help drive revenue from day one. Our sales team is an extremely effective and efficient part of our organization that supports our business and affiliates without the conflicts and confusion of managing other properties, programs and brands,” said LBI Media Executive Vice President Lenard Liberman.
Including the existing LBI-owned stations and its pending purchase of WASA-LP New York, adding the four CCA stations means that Estrella TV will reach 47% of the U.S. Hispanic population. The company has stated that it expects to take that quickly to 70%. Although the Estrella programming – some 56 hours produced weekly in the US by LBI – is already seen on the company’s stations in Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, no date has been set for the national network launch. That is dependent upon the actual date set for the DTV transition.
