The increasingly crowded Hispanic television marketplace in the US is going to become even more crowded today. What make this new network one to watch, though, are some big names and big bucks. CaribeVisión has already bought WPXO-LP (Ch. 34) NYC for 10 million bucks and WFUN-LP (Ch. 48) Miami for three million, with a deal pending to buy four full-power stations in Puerto Rico for 41.5 million. As for the big names, the principal partners are Alejandro Burillo Azcarraga, a founding executive and owner of Grupo Televisa and part of the pioneering Azcarraga television family in Mexico and the US, and Carlos Barba, a former top executive of both Univision and Telemundo. With its broadcast and cable coverage in three of the five largest Hispanic DMAs, CaribeVisión says it will soon be available to over 7.7 million households in the US and Puerto Rico. The target audience will be Puerto Rican and Dominican audiences in those markets, along with other Caribbean and Latin Americans.
Barba said CaribeVisión’s programming line-up will initially consist of English-subtitled telenovelas, talk shows, comedy, drama, sports, movies, news, children’s shows and special events. Some 60% of the network’s programming will be acquired and 30% will be originally produced and owned by CaribeVisión. The network has already concluded several programming agreements with media companies around the world, including with Antenna 3, TV Azteca, Telefe, Telecino and Sportsbrand Media Group, Frecuencia Latina, Dori Media Group, and Rede Globo Television. At launch, CaribeVisión will air 60-second news updates every hour daily, with local news and public affairs programming to be added in its local markets.
