Cox beefing up Las Vegas Hispanic TV offerings

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2000 | 11:01 a.m.

The expansion of the Cox Communications cable television system is enabling the company to offer a growing universe of Spanish-language TV to Las Vegas viewers -- particularly the city's fast-growing Hispanic population.

That eventually could include a new network that will launch in the United States next year, although Cox Vice President Steve Schorr said his company hasn't had any talks with representatives of Dallas-based Azteca America.

Azteca, an alliance between Pappas Telecasting Cos., which owns stations in the United States, and TV Azteca SA, Mexico's No. 2 broadcasting company, is expected to be on the air in the second quarter of 2001 with 18 hours of original programming daily.

Schorr said Cox probably would get involved with Azteca only after the company establishes an affiliate in Las Vegas.

Azteca plans to compete with Los Angeles-based Univision, the largest Spanish-language television network in the United States, and Telemundo, of Miami, which is jointly owned by AT&T Corp.'s Liberty Media Group and the Sony Corp.

Those networks already have Las Vegas affiliates and have homes on the Cox cable system. Univision is affiliated with KINC Channel 15 (Cable Channel 15), while Telemundo is with KBLR Channel 39 (Cable Channel 9).

Schorr said Telemundo and Univision are positioned under Federal Communications Commission "must-carry" rules, meaning that Cox is required to provide access to the cable system for them as a condition of Cox's charter.

If Azteca becomes affiliated with a full-power television station in Las Vegas, Cox may also be compelled to offer it as a must-carry, although Schorr said the basic-cable system has no room for it and would have to remove an existing station to accommodate any new station.

"We haven't heard from them (Azteca), but if we did and decided to go with them, we'd have to make some decisions on what to take off in order to add them," Schorr said.

The scenario is similar to circumstances that led to Cox's plans to add KTUD Channel 25 to its basic package beginning Nov. 1. KTUD, the Las Vegas UPN network affiliate, will appear on cable Channel 14, setting off a chain-reaction of station changes on the cable.

When KTUD takes over Channel 14, FX, which occupies that slot, will move to Channel 24. Comedy Central, which resides at Channel 24, will move to Channel 74. And the Sundance Channel, which is at Channel 74, will move to digital Channel 307, which is unoccupied.

KTUD has operated as a low-power station in Las Vegas, but viewers have been pressuring Cox to add it to its system, primarily because it carries the popular "Star Trek: Voyager" television series, "WWF Smackdown," a weekly professional wrestling program, and in February will broadcast some XFL football games in its inaugural season. Las Vegas will have an XFL franchise, the Outlaws, in the new professional football league.

The same process that enables Cox to shuffle some of the smaller networks, like Sundance Channel, down the dial to a channel with three digits has given the company the ability to add several Spanish-language stations to the system.

With the completion of Cox's digital makeover earlier this year, the company was able to add six networks with Spanish language programming. They are CNN Espanol, Discovery en Espanol, Toon Disney en Espanol, Cartoon Network en Espanol, VH Uno and MTV Espanol, occupying channels 111 to 116 on the digital band.

Cox also offers Playboy en Espanol on a pay-per-view basis on Channel 593. And, by the end of the year, it will add Fox Sports World Espanol on digital Channel 110.

The Spanish-language cable channels offer original programming in the language, not translated versions of the English-language shows.

Although the digital format and fiber-optic cable upgrades have increased Cox's channel capacity, Schorr said hundreds of programming options are available, making the cable system a competitive arena. Schorr said Cox has different contractual arrangements for different networks. The one thing they have in common is that they all want to have their networks as part of the basic cable service, the easiest tier of channels to find, and the ones that are offered to the largest number of Cox subscribers.

A position on the first tier enables channels to charge more for advertising because of the larger viewership.

"Our basic package is offered to all 330,000 Cox subscribers in Las Vegas," Schorr explained. "Then, there are progressively fewer subscribers in the different tiers below that. About 95 percent take the full basic package, then there's less than that with the digital tier (where most of the Spanish-language channels are)."

Schorr explained that subscribers who take any of the digital tiers don't need special televisions to receive the signal -- just a converter box that will translate the digital signal to an analog signal most televisions can display.

Additional channels cost a subscriber more, but the different tiers are similarly priced and the Spanish-language group of stations is one of the customer options offered.

In addition to the two Spanish-language network affiliates and the seven Spanish-language cable networks, viewers can also receive some channels in Spanish by making an adjustment on their televisions.

Schorr said any channel that offers what's known as a "second audio program" -- SAP -- can be adjusted to deliver the dialogue in Spanish. Schorr said SAP is available on 16 channels on the Cox system: KLAS Channel 8, KLVX Channel 10, FX, American Movie Classics, the Cartoon Network, Showtime, Cinemax, the three HBO networks and six pay-per-view channels.

NBC, the network affiliated with KVBC Channel 3, feeds network programming in Spanish, but locally generated shows, like newscasts, aren't offered.

But the two local Spanish-language network affiliates offer their own newscasts.

The largest Spanish-language local newscast is presented by KINC Channel 15, the Univision affiliate.

"Noticias Univision Las Vegas" first aired in April 1999, said news director Xochitl Sandoval, and now includes 30-minute newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m., Monday through Friday. She said the early show is anchored by Maria Silva and Oscar Mah, while the 11 p.m., newscast features anchor Adriana Varela.

"Noticias" isn't exclusively about the local Hispanic community, Sandoval said. The local program features local news of the day, weather and a segment on sports that is heavy on soccer and boxing news. Wire service stories are rewritten from English copy.

The station has a Washington D.C. correspondent and the station tracks immigration, education and construction industry issues closely.

Sandoval said the station plans a morning newscast next year.

Univision's main competitor, Telemundo, offered in Las Vegas on KBLR Channel 39, has a taped newscast Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. News director Carlos Vargas said the local portion of the report is anchored by Teresa Dominguez with reports from Marines Linera.

Vargas said an average newscast includes the top of the local news, a segment of particular interest to the local Hispanic community, then 15 minutes of national and world news from Telemundo International. The national and world news features a heavy concentration of news from Mexico and Latin America.

The newscast wraps up with two sports segments, one local, the other on national and international sporting events.

The Greenspun family, owner of the Las Vegas Sun, is a minority investor in the Las Vegas Cox cable system.

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