CaribeVisión

World Screen Weekly, July 10, 2008

COUNTRY: U.S.

LAUNCH DATE: September 11, 2007

OWNERSHIP: The channel is owned by Pegaso Televisión (83.34 percent) and Barba Television (16.66 percent). Pegaso Televisión is owned by the Burillo-Azcárraga family (48.3 percent), Spain’s Telecinco (35.08 percent) and investment firm Quantek (16.62 percent.)

DISTRIBUTION: CaribeVisión owns and operates WPXO in New York and WFUN in Miami, as well as four stations in Puerto Rico. The stations collectively reach more than 7 million households.

DESCRIPTION: The newest entry into the increasingly crowded U.S. Hispanic landscape, the Spanish-language channel features a range of genres, including telenovelas, talk shows, comedies, dramas, sports, movies, news, children’s shows and special events. It targets communities from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America.

CHAIRMAN: Alejandro Burillo-Azcárraga

PRESIDENT & CEO: Carlos Barba

PRESIDENT, SALES: Emilio Nicolas

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: Angel Santamaria

VP, PROGRAMMING, CARIBEVISIÓN STATION GROUP: Jorge Rojas

DIRECTOR, PROGRAMMING, CARIBEVISIÓN NETWORK: Xose Manuel Barreira

COO: Jaime Escandon

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: CaribéVision is the brainchild of Carlos Barba, a veteran of the U.S. Hispanic market, and Alejandro Burillo-Azcárraga, who spent a number of years at the Mexican media giant Grupo Televisa. It launched last September after shelling out some $60 million to acquire broadcast TV stations in New York, Miami and Puerto Rico.

The new station is tapping into the resources of its founders as it looks to establish itself as a strong competitor to the two behemoths of the U.S. Spanish-language market: Telemundo and Univision. Barba worked at both networks in the past. Burillo-Azcárraga, meanwhile, “has been in television all his life, from childhood,” Barba notes. Burillo-Azcárraga, who heads up CaribeVisión’s parent company, Pegaso Televisión, is providing “great support” out of Mexico, Barba says. “He owns four soccer teams in the professional league in Mexico. He has access to studios, to talent, to productions—we have a great partner in Pegaso.”

CaribeVisión is also tapping into the expertise of the Spanish broadcaster Telecinco, which recently acquired a 35-percent stake in Pegaso TV. A slate of content from the network is now airing on CaribeVisión, including the popular medical drama Hospital Central and the sitcom Escenas de Martrimonios.

Other suppliers to the station include Telefe International with Floricienta, Dori Media with Lalola and Brazil’s Rede Record with a slate of telenovelas.

About 40 percent of CaribeVisión’s schedule is original content, some of which is now being offered up on the international market by Lightworks Program Distribution. The channel’s most popular productions include Hollywood Café, a 30-minute show covering entertainment news, celebrity interviews and lifestyle segments on the latest trends in travel, health and design; In Fraganti, a one-hour magazine-style news program featuring a wide range of topics from around the world; and Margarita Te Voy a Contar, an hour-long investigative journalistic-style talk show hosted by Margarita Pasos.

Whether acquired or originally produced, the content, Barba says, is designed to create an emotional, long-lasting connection between the viewer and the network. “I want to offer a new kind of television, in which the star of the television station is the [audience] and the viewers can participate” online and via SMS, Barba adds.

“We show programming that represents [our audiences’] cultures and traditions. We create programming and entertainment and information for people who are immigrants. They have great nostalgia [for their home countries.] We are part of the past and the future of these people.”

Barba is looking to strengthen these ties with local communities using the station’s original productions, which include news and public-affairs shows. The original shows are also tapping into a range of product-placement opportunities. “We are using the most sophisticated and new strategies in marketing,” Barba states. “It’s branding, branding, branding, night and day. This is what the advertisers want to see—their brands in the hands of the consumers and at the point of sales. We call it strategic media support.”

WHAT’S NEW: Despite the difficult economic environment in the U.S., Barba is very optimistic about CaribeVisión’s prospects in the market. U.S. Hispanics remain a lucrative demographic for advertisers, and Barba is convinced that CaribeVisión has developed sophisticated advertising and marketing proposals that will lure clients, and compelling enough programming to bring in the viewers. The next stage in the company’s growth, he says, will be expanding its distribution. “We are developing the network. In New York we’re on Cablevision and Time Warner, in Florida on Comcast, in Puerto Rico we have full power stations and we are in all the cable systems too. The moment that I sign up stations in California and Texas and I increase my reach, the value of our company is going to [soar].”

Barba expects to be reaching 70 percent of U.S. Hispanic households within the next two years and he is looking to take the company public in three to four years.

WEBSITE: www.caribevision.com

—By Mansha Daswani