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Estrella now set to launch Monday on WKCF

September 9th, 2009

estrella The debut of O-Town’s newest Spanish-language offering has been pushed to Sept. 14.

Back in July, WESH-2, WKCF-CW 18 and parent Hearst Television announced a partnership with Liberman Broadcasting to offer its Estrella TV to Central Florida viewers on WKCF’s digital sub-channel 18.3. The original start date was sometime in in mid-August; now Estrella will go live on Monday.

According to Broadcasting and Cable, Orlando is one of 17 markets nationally where Estrella is launching. Among the other Florida markets are Miami, on Sunbeam’s WSVN-Fox 7, and West Palm Beach, on Hearst’s WPBF-ABC 25

Estrella is giving partnering stations an opportunity to cash in with Hispanic-targeted advertising. According to B&C, “The affiliate model sees the stations keep 40 percent of the commercial inventory, according to Liberman, with Estrella retaining the other 60 percent. Stations will have the opportunity to put local touches on the programming lineup, such as a Spanish-language newscast produced by station talent to air on Estrella.”

Said WESH/WKCF GM Jim Carter in a news release: “We are always looking for ways to better serve our large and growing Hispanic population, and with LBI’s Spanish-language broadcast experience reaching back to the 70’s, we know we’ve found the right partner.”

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Posted in Orlando TV, WESH-2, WKCF-18

Tags: Estrella WESH-2 WKCF-18

Orlando gets a new Spanish-language channel on WKCF

July 17th, 2009

The Spanish-language offerings on Orlando TV are about to get more diverse.

WESH-2, WKCF-CW 18 and parent Hearst Television announced Thursday a partnership with Liberman Broadcasting to offer its Estrella TV to Central Florida viewers. Estrealla, which broadcasts original Spanish-language content produced in the United States, will appear on WKCF’s digital sub-channel 18.3 starting in mid-August.

“We are always looking for ways to better serve our large and growing Hispanic population, and with LBI’s Spanish-language broadcast experience reaching back to the 70’s, we know we’ve found the right partner,” WESH/WKCF President and General Manager Jim Carter said in a news release.

Lenard Liberman, Executive Vice President, LBI Media, said, “We are excited to work with WESH and WKCF to offer Estrella TV’s original, high-quality programming to a new group of Hispanic viewers in the Orlando – Daytona Beach, Florida market. This partnership solidifies our commitment to launch Estrella TV this quarter and to finalize our position as a network that will benefit Hispanic audiences and advertisers nationwide.”

According to the news release, Estrella TV will provide a unique mix of programs, including musical-variety, comedy, scripted drama, talk and game shows, as well as a daily national newscast and a news magazine show, all featuring top Latin American talent. Network owner LBI is the largest producer of Spanish-language television programming in the United States, and currently produces 56 hours of original television per week.

In addition to competing against WVEN-Univision 26 and WTMO-Telemundo 15, Estrella will also go up against LATV — the Hispanic channel offered on WKMG-Local 6’s digital sub-channel 6.2. WKMG parent Post-Newsweek has a distrbution deal with LATV that began in January 2007.

Estrella TV will also be the third digital sub-channel offered by the WESH-WKCF duopoly. WESH has WeatherPlus on its 2.2 sub-channel, and WKCF has This TV, a 24-hour movie channel, on its 18.2 sub-channel.