MundoFox, New Spanish-Language Network, to Make Debut

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 13, 2012

MundoFox, New Spanish-Language Network, to Make Debut

By TANZINA VEGA

LOS ANGELES — The correspondents were on camera and on location in Mexico City, Washington and Los Angeles. Rolando Nichols, the lead anchor, listened intently to the microphone in his ear as he stood in front of the bright red walls of the news studio.

But the news would have to wait: engineers and producers in the control room were having trouble with the sound coming from one of the microphones.

Fortunately, this was not a live news broadcast. It was a test run for MundoFox, the newest Spanish-language network in the United States.

On Monday, the network — a partnership between Fox International Channels, owned by the News Corporation, and RCN Television in Colombia — will make its official debut in 50 cities in the United States, including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and New York.

MundoFox will be entering a market long dominated by Univision and the smaller Telemundo as it tries to gain the attention of the millions of Latinos in the United States who watch Spanish-language programming. The effort is estimated to cost $50 million.

By the end of the year, network executives say they expect to be in 60 cities, reaching nearly 80 percent of Latino audiences in the United States. It is the first time RCN will be part owner of a broadcast network in the United States.

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