New Spanish TV 43 in San Diego To Debut Friday (April 7, 2005)

The station will be broadcast over the air on KBOP-CA and over Cox Communications' digital tier channel 143.

In partnership with Cox Communications, the station will debut the country's first-ever Spanish-language live Padres baseball telecast and serve as the cornerstone for the new station's programming.

The majority of the new station's programming will come from NBC-owned KWHY-TV channel 22 in Los Angeles.

In addition, a local Spanish-language newscast is planned for later in the year, airing at 7 p.m. and produced by KNSD.

Mi San Diego will be competing for the Hispanic audience with several Spanish-language TV stations including an affiliate of NBC's own Telemundo network, XHAS-TV, programmed and marketed by Entravision Communications, and KBNT, Entravision's owned and operated Univision affiliate. NBC Universal cannot put Telemundo on KBOP-CA because the network has a long term contract with Entravision, which handles sales and programming for the Mexican-owned XHAS 33 in Tijuana. Entravision is the direct owner of KBNT, broadcasting on channel 17 in South San Diego County, channel 62 in La Jolla, and channel 49 in Oceanside.

Including the new station, NBC Universal will own and operate 17 Spanish-language TV stations, 15 of which are owned and operated Telemundo station.

In a press release, Jay Ireland, president of the NBC Universal Television Stations said "we're delighted to provide the viewers of San Diego with a new Spanish-language television channel. Mi San Diego will offer a compelling roster of entertainment programming, local news and sports content, and demonstrates NBC's commitment to the community by providing viewers with another outlet for Spanish-language television."

Phyllis Schwartz, president and general manager of NBC 7/39, said "the Hispanic community has been an important focus of our news and community efforts at NBC 7/39. With the launch of Mi San Diego, we can now extend those ties and appeal to an even broader Spanish-speaking audience.”

Mi San Diego TV 43 will debut at 7 p.m. on April 8 with the country’s first-ever Spanish-language Padres telecast live from Petco Park. The Padres telecasts, in partnership with Cox Communications, will be the initial cornerstone of Mi San Diego's local programming efforts with live telecasts every Friday and Saturday throughout the season. The schedule will also include various locally produced public affairs programs and specials.

Later in the year, NBC 7/39, the NBC Universal owned & operated station in San Diego, will begin producing a daily Spanish-language local newscast for the channel, which will air daily at 7 p.m.

Mi San Diego's schedule will cull its material from the longtime Los Angeles UHF station, KWHY in Los Angeles, the most successful independent Spanish language television station in the country. KWHY currently produces 38 hours of local programming per week, including several hours of local news. Highlights include the daily 10 a.m. talk show De Todo un Poco, the Spanish-language court show, El Tribunal del Pueblo, airing at 1 p.m. and the popular reality show 12 Corazones, airing at 4 p.m. Five different movie presentations air at various times throughout the day, taken from KWHY's library of over 1,600 films, including the prime time movie Cine Mexicano, which broadcasts the best from the golden era of Mexican classic films.

San Diego is the country's 13th largest Hispanic television market with more than 215,000 Hispanic TV households. The Class A broadcast signal of Channel 43 covers a portion of southwest San Diego County and reaches 51percent of the market's Hispanic population. In addition, Cable 143 on Cox Communications digital tier will extend the channel's reach even further into the Hispanic community.

KNSD (NBC 7/39) is owned and operated by the NBC Universal Television Stations division, which is comprised of 14 NBC television stations in major U.S. television markets and 15 stations affiliated with the Telemundo Network. Together, these stations cover approximately 30 percent of the nation’s viewing households and broadcast NBC and Telemundo network programs, as well as substantial amounts of locally produced news, sports, and public affairs programming.