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.