California broadcaster to build U.S. Latin network

By Ayala Ben-Yehuda

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Liberman Broadcasting has emerged as a scrappy competitor to its rivals Univision and Telemundo, producing 56 hours of original programing in its Burbank, California, studios every week.

Now Liberman -- which owns Spanish-language TV and radio station clusters in Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and Phoenix -- is hoping to build a national network called Estrella TV. Through a combination of station purchases and affiliates, Liberman expects Estrella TV to be in 70 percent of U.S. Hispanic homes by the end of first-quarter 2009.

The company owns TV stations in San Diego and Salt Lake City, as well as a radio station in San Bernardino, California.

Rather than expanding its distribution channels first and then buying or creating new, unproven programing to fill it, Liberman has "spent the last 10 years honing and developing our programing to the point now where it's very highly rated," executive vice president/secretary Lenard Liberman said.

Nielsen rankings for October put Liberman's Los Angeles TV station fourth among Spanish-language stations in the market for total day ratings, but it came in second on weekdays between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. among Hispanics 18-34 during the October 30-November 9 sweeps period, excluding soccer. Such programs as music/variety show "Estudio 2" and "Trancazo Musical" came in first in key Hispanic demographic groups during their time segments.

At a time when radio revenue is declining as a result of a soft advertising market, Liberman's third-quarter results showed a 6 percent net revenue increase in radio compared with the same period of 2007. (TV was down 3 percent because of a decline in infomercials and outages in Texas associated with Hurricane Ike.)

The company initially aimed its programing at those of Mexican descent, but it has exported its shows to South America and Puerto Rico and is looking for national reach for Estrella TV -- not just in the western United States.

Reuters/Billboard