Telecinco in U.S. Spanish-speaking TV venture
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's leading broadcaster Telecinco (TL5.MC) said on Thursday it would gain a foothold in the U.S. TV market by taking a small stake in a new Spanish-language channel.
CaribeVision is a new channel operating in New York, Miami and Puerto Rico which will broadcast to Spanish speakers on the eastern coast of the United States.
The Spanish firm, majority owned by Italy's Mediaset (MS.MI), is a founding investor in CaribeVision and has agreed to buy a 28.3 percent stake in CaribeVision for $32 million.
Telecinco said another investor would be the Burillo-Azcarraga family -- one of Mexico's most influential families and the founders of Televisa (TV.N), the world's leading Spanish-language program maker.
"From this moment the company will be self financed ... via advertising. We trust we will reach breakeven within two years," CEO Paolo Vasile told reporters.
The Spanish-speaking U.S. advertising market was worth $4.8 billion in 2006, Telecinco said.
Shares in Telecinco, up 4.5 percent before the announcement flagged by the company on Wednesday, had fallen back to a rise of 0.8 percent to 15.17 euros by 1239 GMT.
Telecinco said it would keep its dividend payout at 1.28 euros per share in 2007 after the move.
(Reporting by Robert Hetz and Elisabeth O'Leary; Writing by Elisabeth O'Leary; Editing by Quentin Bryar, Paul Bolding)
