NEW YORK, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- At its Upfront '08 presentation, ESPN's
Spanish-language multimedia brand, ESPN Deportes, announced impressive
distribution gains and presented the advertising community with a host of new
ideas and creative content demonstrating the network's commitment to
innovative multiplatform programming across its television, radio, online,
print and wireless properties. The company's first-ever televised upfront
provided a star-studded guest list, as well as home viewers, the opportunity
to experience the power of the ESPN Deportes brand first-hand. The Upfront
Presentation, themed "ESPN Deportes Reloaded," reinforced the company's
multiplatform approach, showcased the television network's distribution growth
and innovative programming initiatives and highlighted the network's recent
addition to Nielsen's U.S. Hispanic Cable service.
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Boxing took center stage at the event held at New York City's exclusive
Gotham Hall. Following the Presentation guests were treated to a special,
onsite production of Miercoles de Combate (Wednesday Night Boxing) to mark the
return of the sport to ESPN Deportes. Junior-welterweight Luis "Charal"
Rodriguez (22-1, 13 KO's) took on NABF Light Welterweight Champion, Francisco
"The Cat" Figueroa, (18-2, 13 KO's), in a 10-round bout aired tonight on ESPN
Deportes and ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET. In addition, Colombian Grammy winner, Jorge
Villamizar (former lead singer of Bacilos), made his solo debut tonight
performing "Ninguna" from his most anticipated solo album. Other guests
included former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres; Mexican actress Lorena Rojas;
Chivas race car driver Antonio Perez; NASCAR race car driver Jesus Hernandez;
UFC Champion Roger Huerta; Annia Hatch, Olympic Gold Medal winning gymnast;
Ana Guevara, Olympic Medal winning sprinter; Puerto Rican boxing veterans
Carlos Ortiz and Juan LaPorte; Scott Gomez from the New York Rangers and from
team Red Bulls Juan Pablo Angel, Oscar Echeverry, Claudio Reyna, and Dave Van
Der Bergh.
Long dedicated to providing the widest variety of sports programming to
Hispanic fans in the U.S. through its multi-media properties, ESPN Deportes
announced a remarkable increase in distribution over the past year, with the
total number of Hispanic households that carry the television network growing
to 3.4 million Nielsen Hispanic homes in May 2008. ESPN Deportes is also
currently available in digital basic in the top three U.S. Hispanic markets:
Los Angeles, New York and Miami.
Thanks to the brand's strong local ratings, ESPN Deportes recently became
nationally rated by The Nielsen Company's U.S. Hispanic cable service, known
as Nielsen Homevideo Index Hispanic (NHIH) Service, which estimates viewing in
12.1 million U.S. Hispanic households. According to Nielsen's ratings, ESPN
Deportes had the five highest-rated sports news and commentary programs on any
Spanish-language cable network over the past two weeks (4/28/08 to 5/11/08),
as well as fifteen of the top twenty sports news and commentary programs.
"Being rated by Nielsen has been our greatest accomplishment to date and
we look forward to showing advertisers the audience that our network can
deliver," said Lino Garcia, General Manager of ESPN Deportes. "ESPN Deportes
has reloaded and the brand is reaching more Hispanics than ever before through
multiple strong platforms and with refreshed programming initiatives."
ESPN Deportes Radio, the only around-the-clock national Spanish-language
radio network in the U.S. exemplifies the strength of the ESPN Deportes brand.
The company's KWKW affiliate in Los Angeles achieved its highest ratings in
the station's history in the latest Arbitron book (May 2008) and cemented its
place as the clear Spanish-language AM leader in its market. Expanding its
reach, ESPN Deportes Radio recently launched a new affiliate station in
Milwaukee and will soon launch an affiliate in Miami, bringing its reach to
43% of the U.S. Hispanic market. ESPN Deportes Radio now has 26 affiliates
nationwide including four of the top ten U.S. Hispanic markets: Miami, Los
Angeles, Phoenix and Dallas. The radio network is also available nationally on
Sirius Satellite Radio.
ESPN Deportes showed similarly impressive distribution gains through its
online assets as ESPNDeportes.com showed an 81% growth in unique users in 2007
and its video download service came out ahead of the competitors', with fans
viewing offerings more than 20 million times-a 150% increase over 2006. The
company's five to eight daily podcasts, too, proved increasingly popular,
being downloaded more than 1 million times on iTunes in 2007.
"The growth of each one of ESPN Deportes' platforms shows the success of
the brand in taking a single product and showcasing it in an interactive way
throughout all media, facilitating the way in which our audience receives its
sports news," said Jeff Siegel, Senior Vice President of Regional Sales,
Direct Response and Emerging Media for ESPN Deportes. "The more platforms we
build for Hispanic sports fans, the more they will use them."
In order to better serve sports fans across the nation, ESPN Deportes also
announced its expansion of programming initiatives and current offerings.
Newly refreshed programming includes: Dream Job: El Reportero, South American
World Cup Qualifiers, Wednesday Night Fights and the critically acclaimed
documentary film 'Chavez.' ESPN Deportes also announced the expansion of the
current offering of SportsCenter and the unveiling of a innovative new talk
show. (Please find a complete description of each program on the following
page.)
New Programming Initiatives Announced at the Upfront Include:
Miercoles y Viernes de Combate: Boxing comes home, twice a week with
Miercoles and Viernes de Combate. Viernes de Combates will make its debut
February 2009 anchored by a brand new studio show that will be aired preceding
the weekly telecasts.
South American World Cup Qualifying tournament: Proving that it's never
too early to begin coverage of the most important sporting event in the world
- The World Cup - ESPN Deportes will provide television and radio coverage of
all 70 remaining matches of the prestigious 2010 South American World Cup
Qualifying tournament (SAWCQ) June 2008 through November 2009. The South
American World Cup Qualifying, a 10-teams qualifying tournament, will feature
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay,
and Venezuela as they play each other twice for a spot in the 2010 World Cup
in South Africa. The top four teams from South America will automatically
qualify and the fifth place finisher will play the fourth place team from
CONCACAF in a two-game playoff for the right to play in South Africa.
Dream Job: El Reportero II: The second installation of reality show Dream
Job: El Reportero, the Spanish-language version of ESPN's popular show Dream
Job, will launch in Fall of 2009. Aspiring sports broadcasters in major U.S.
Hispanic markets a chance to compete head-to-head for a chance to win a job as
a SportsCenter reporter for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The first
edition of Dream Job: El Reportero featured six finalists with Mauricio
Pedroza of San Luis de Potosi, Mexico winning the challenge. Following his
one-year contract with ESPN Deportes, Pedroza was hired full-time by ESPN. He
currently serves as a key SportsCenter reporter.
Caribbean Series Baseball: ESPN Deportes and Cultiva Entertainment
reached a multi-year agreement in principal that makes ESPN Deportes the home
of the Caribbean Series. Under the terms of the agreement, ESPN Deportes will
offer exclusive Spanish-language coverage of the six-day tournament beginning
with the 2009 edition from Mexicali, Mexico.
Chavez: His name has been chanted across arenas and coliseums, his
achievements in the ring are the stuff legends are made of. Julio Cesar Chavez
is the greatest sports icon of his generation in Mexico and for the first time
a documentary by award winning actor/director Diego Luna of "Y tu mama
tambien" fame invites us into the world of the living legend. Chavez will
premiere on ESPN Deportes in September of 2008 in celebration of Hispanic
Heritage. Chavez examines Mexico's adoration of the iconic fighter through
hard hitting interviews with his son and promising fighter Julio Cesar Chavez,
Jr., icons of the sport such as Oscar de la Hoya and Mike Tyson and industry
journalists. Chavez, which premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival to
critical acclaim, was produced by Canana, a film and television production
company founded in 2005 by Luna, actor Gael Garcia Bernal and producer Pablo
Cruz. The documentary will be presented in its entirety several times during
Hispanic Heritage Month. Coinciding with its television debut, Chavez, which
runs 78 minutes, will debut on DVD September 23 for the suggested retail price
of $24.95 and $14.99 wholesale price.
Rumbo a las Mayores: Chronicles the voyage of a group of Dominican-born
aspiring Major Leaguers and their road of breaking into the Majors. The show
follows the aspiring major leaguers through tryouts, batting practices, and
their day-to-day lives at some of MLB's most notable baseball academies in the
Dominican Republic. Boston Red Sox David Ortiz plays a feature role in the
film, lending his perspective on a Dominican who made it big in the Major
leagues. Rumbo a las Mayores will premiere this Fall.
Studio shows in Development:
In addition to the new programming initiatives, the company announced
various studio shows in development, including:
Returning Programming:
UEFA Champions League: The best of European club team competition
featuring over 90 matches;
NBA: Regular season games, as well as exclusive Spanish-language coverage
of the playoffs through to the Conference Finals;
NFL: Exclusive Spanish-language coverage of Monday Night Football, with a
weekly report (NFL Esta Noche);
MLB: Exclusive, national Spanish-language coverage of Sunday Night
Baseball, a number of holiday games, and the Home Run Derby;
Tennis: Top tournaments including Grand Slam action from Wimbledon and the
French Open;
Mexican First Division Soccer: Regular season live Mexican first division
soccer;
MLS: Exclusive weekly live Thursday night games;
NASCAR: Exclusive Spanish-language coverage featuring a 17-race Sprint
Cup schedule and coverage of the entire Nationwide Series;
Dominoes: Exclusive agreement with the International Domino Federation to
telecast the 2008 World Domino Championship at Disney's Coronado Springs
Resort in Orlando, Florida July 8 - 12;
Perfiles: A series of half-hour portraits that narrates the lives of the
greatest Latino sports stars. The series tells two stories - that of an
athlete and the man/woman out of the playing field. Using footage from
original interviews, witnesses, historians and biographers tell us about these
individuals - who they were, what motivated them, when they came of age, why
they were great and often, why they faded;
2008 World Salsa Championship: Set to take place at Walt Disney World in
Orlando, FL, in December of 2008.
ESPN DEPORTES is ESPN's Spanish-language sports brand dedicated to
providing the widest variety of sports to the U.S. Hispanic sports fan via
television, radio, online, print, and wireless. Sports media assets include
ESPN Deportes television which offers unparalleled Spanish-language sports
programming, featuring more than 1900 live and/or original hours of sports
programming presented annually; ESPN Deportes Radio, the only around-the-clock
national Spanish-language sports radio network in the U.S.; ESPNdeportes.com,
the #1 Spanish-language sports Web site among Spanish-preferred fans in the
U.S.; ESPN Deportes La Revista, the first general sports Spanish-language
magazine in the U.S.; and ESPN Deportes Mobile, the brand's emerging business
which offers Spanish-language sports content to fans via wireless devices.
SOURCE ESPN Deportes
