LATV

Not to be confused with LAT TV, a defunct over-the-air Spanish-language television network in the United States.
LATV
Type Bilingual broadcast television network
(music, talk and variety series, children's programs)
Country United States
Founded 2001
by Walter Ulloa
Slogan Latino Alternative Television
Headquarters Los Angeles, California
Broadcast area
 Nationwide via OTA digital television
(covering 37% of the U.S.)
Owner LATV Networks, LLC
Key people
 Luca Bentivoglio
(COO, LATV Networks)
Launch date
 2001 (in Los Angeles, on KJLA)
April 23, 2007 (nationwide)
Picture format
 480i (SDTV)
Affiliates List of affiliates
Official website
 www.latv.com

LATV (originally pronounced on-air as la´teβe from 2007 to 2014, and since 2014, serves as a backronym for its on-air slogan "Latino Alternative Television") is an American bilingual broadcast television network that is owned by LATV Networks, LLC. The network primarily carries a mix of original and imported music, talk and variety series aimed at Hispanic and Latino American teenagers and young adults between the ages of 12 and 34.

The network is available in many markets via the digital subchannels of broadcast television stations and on select cable providers throughout the United States and Puerto Rico through a local affiliate of the network (via a basic programming tier for main channel affiliates, and digital tiers for subchannel-only affiliates).

History

LATV network logo, used from 2007 to 2014.

LATV originated in 2001 as a programming format on KJLA (channel 57), an independent television station licensed to Los Angeles suburb of Ventura, California (which signed on in 1990 as KSTV-TV, a Galavisión affiliate), which mainly carried Spanish language programming as well as a limited amount of English language content. The format was an outgrowth of the station's nighttime and weekend programming, which it adopted in July 1998, following its disaffiliation from The WB (done to protect existing affiliate KTLA, after KJLA gained must-carry status on Los Angeles area cable providers); the remainder of the schedule at this time consisted of financial news programming and overnight programming from Shop at Home Network.

On November 22, 2006, Costa de Oro Television (founding owner of KJLA, which was purchased by the network's founder Walter Ulloa in 1994) announced that it would turn the LATV format into a full-fledged national network with a standardized schedule, resulting in the network becoming a competitor with established Spanish language networks such as Univision, Telemundo and Azteca América; as a result, Costa de Oro Television was subsequently renamed LATV Networks. The national LATV network launched on April 23, 2007, on 16 stations in media markets with heavy Latino/Hispanic populations. On May 22, 2007, LATV signed an affiliation agreement with Entravision Communications to carry the network on stations it owned or managed in 10 markets (including Boston, Denver; Albuquerque, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Washington, D.C.), including five of the 25 largest Hispanic markets in the U.S.[1]

On August 20, 2007, Post-Newsweek Stations (now Graham Media Group) acquired a minority interest in network parent LATV Networks; as part of the acquisition, Post-Newsweek also signed an affiliation agreement to carry LATV on the digital subchannels of its television stations in Houston, Miami, Orlando and San Antonio[2] (the company's stations in Jacksonville and Detroit were later added to the agreement); Post-Newsweek relinquished its interest in the network in 2013, with LATV moving its affiliations in most of the markets where the company owned stations to other full-power and low-power outlets.

Programming

LATV provides general entertainment programming to its affiliated stations weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. and weekends from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time, with paid and other brokered programming filling most other timeslots. The network airs a mix of originally produced programs and series produced by Mexico-based broadcast networks MVS Television and Multimedios Television (with which LATV maintains programming agreements), most of which are broadcast in Spanish.

Programs aired on the network include Rokamolé (a rock music video series with various Latin rock artists serving as guest hosts), La Casa TV (an hour-long lifestyle series), Locas por el Futbol (a weekly soccer review and discussion series hosted by a six-female panel), Almohadazo el Noti (a non-formal late-night news/talk show, hosted by Fernanda Tapia), En La Zona (an entertainment/talk show), Ponle Play (a daily music video series hosted by Caroline Lau), Las Supér 20 (consisting of two weekend music countdown series respectively featuring pop and Mexican Regional videos), Las Noches del LATV (a rebranded version of the Multimedios Television late-night variety series Las Noches del Fútbol) and Conexeo Mundial de Lucha Libre (a weekend lucha libre wrestling series and the network's lone sports program).

Although the majority of LATV's programming is produced in Spanish, the network also carries a limited amount of program content produced either exclusively in English or in both languages including Latino TV, an interview series focusing on Latinos in entertainment, sports and art (similar in format to American Latino TV and LatiNation); and children's programs originally distributed for broadcast syndication by Telco Productions, a production company founded by host/television producer Alex Paen – which air for a half-hour on Sunday through Friday mornings and are intended to meet the three-hour weekly educational content requirements defined by the Federal Communications Commission's Children's Television Act. Since 2014, the network also simulcasts home shopping programming from Liquidation Channel each night from 3:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, through a time brokerage agreement.

The network does not carry national morning and evening newscasts, nor does it carry first-run daytime programming on weekdays; the network instead carries day-behind encores of its evening and late-night programs as part of its daytime lineup on Monday through Fridays. The network's sole news program is Perspectiva Nacional, a Sunday evening political talk show produced by Entravision Communications (LATV had formerly produced a weeknight-only national newscast called Noticias LATV, which aired from 2010 to July 2012).

Current programming

Talk/interview/lifestyle shows

Variety series

Music series

Scipted series

News programming

Sports programming

Children's programming

Former programming

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

Talk/interview shows

Scipted series

News programming

Affiliates

As of January 2015, LATV's programming is carried on television stations in 37 media markets encompassing 17 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, covering approximately 37% of the United States (or 42,254,000 households with at least one television set). The majority of its stations receive LATV through affiliation agreements with the network; Los Angeles flagship station KJLA serves as the network's sole owned-and-operated station via its ownership by LATV parent LATV Networks.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "LATV, Bilingual Net, Adds 10 New Markets". MediaPost. May 22, 2007. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  2. ↑ "KSAT 12 owner invests in LATV Networks". San Antonio Business Journal. August 20, 2007. Retrieved January 11, 2015.

External links