Globo Scores U.S. Slot for Soul Mate

SÃO PAULO, June 28: Globo TV International has licensed its telenovela Soul Mate to Pappas Telecasting Companies, a U.S. broadcasting group that is reformulating its strategy for the Spanish-language market in the U.S. after ending its alliance with Azteca America.

The series is slated to launch on Pappas July 2, airing in prime time. Launched this year, the show has already aired on Televen in Venezuela and Red Global in Peru. In Brazil, the telenovela broke ratings records for the 6 p.m. time slot and was seen by more than 29 million viewers. It is a romantic comedy set in the 1940s about the search for true love.

As of July 1, Pappas’s television stations that were formerly affiliated with the Azteca America Network will commence broadcasting a new slate of Spanish-language programming for Hispanic viewers. KAZH-TV/Houston, Texas; KTNC-TV, serving the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose and Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto television markets; KAZR/Reno, Nevada; KAZO/Omaha, Nebraska; and KAZJ/Sioux City, Iowa, will be the first five stations to launch with the new content. “Our programming model follows that of other Hispanic independent stations which have demonstrated the ability to compete successfully for Hispanic audiences and ratings,” said Fernando Acosta, the VP of Pappas Telecasting’s Hispanic TV Stations Group. “In fact, such stations have regularly achieved higher ratings than the Azteca America Network and performed on par with TeleFutura and Telemundo.”

Dennis J. Davis, Pappas Telecasting’s president COO, added: “In late-March, Pappas Telecasting announced that it was exploring the sale, joint venture, or co-investment with others of its Hispanic television assets. This initiative is complementary to those efforts. The higher ratings and increased revenues that our stations will earn will enhance their value to our audiences and our advertisers. The company is in the advanced stages of negotiations with interested parties who not only have successful business track records, but also, in a number of cases, have demonstrated the ability to produce content popular with U.S. Hispanics.”

Pappas expects to add Spanish-language programming serving up to 16 more markets by December. The potential reach of the Pappas stations is nearly 40 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population.

The slate includes the talk show Marta Susana, the entertainment gossip show Paparazzi and novelas such as Due񡠹 Se񯲡, as well as sports programming and feature films.