BY LEAH HOCHBAUMROSNER The year 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of Telelatino (or TLN), a Toronto-based cable and satellite TV channel that offers programming in Italian, Spanish and English. (The company also operates an office in Montreal). To celebrate this milestone, the Latino superstation is launching “Making a Better Canada,” a yearlong campaign to celebrate and showcase the profound impact ethnic immigrant individuals, families and communities make on Canada. As part of the campaign, TLN will promote a number of projects, including essay contests, a children’s literacy program and a slew of TV specials. To salute TLN and wish it a very happy birthday, VideoAge sat down with the network’s president, Aldo Di Felice, to discuss what makes TLN so special to him and to Canada. Geography” or “The Kids Book of Canadian History,” to selected schools and libraries as a welcome kit to young newcomers of Hispanic descent. TLN also joined with 25 prominent ItalianCanadian families in an unprecedented pledge of $13 million in support of the Galleria Italia (Art Gallery) of Ontario’s new building. “We’re doing different things in different corners of the community,” said Di Felice, “whether it be higher education, immigrant literacy or the arts. We really wanted to give back to our community, to our viewers.” Telelatino was born on November 29, 1984 after Emilio Mascia –– a local entrepreneur who was known for bringing Italian films into Canada to be shown in theaters in Toronto –– decided it was high time for a station that catered to Canada’s millions of Latinos and Italians. The channel, which initially launched in just 4,000 homes in Toronto, quickly grew in popularity, especially after it began broadcasting football (soccer) games, doubling its number of subscribers to 8,000. In 1991, TLN’s numbers increased dramatically to 500,000 homes after it became part of full basic cable service with providers Maclean Hunter and Classicom. The following year, its subscriber base more than tripled to 1.8 million homes upon being added to the full cable package with Rogers. In 1996, the channel was carried across Western Canada by Shaw Communications, increasing its subscribers to 3.12 million households across Canada. And in 1997, TLN launched on two of Canadian satellite DTH services, BellExpressVu and Star Choice. And it only kept growing from there. Today, the channel is available in nearly five million Canadian homes and can be seen by approximately 12 million Canadians from coast to coast. Although it was Mascia’s vision that first brought the channel to light, he retired as president in 1997 following the completion of a 20 percent shareholding investment in Telelatino by Shaw Cable, Canada’s second largest cable company. In 1999, Corus Entertainment inherited Shaw’s interest in the specialty network with the announcement that Shaw Communications would split its media assets from its cable assets. Corus now holds a controlling 50.5 percent interest in the company. Regardless, Di Felice, who took over as president of TLN in 1998, made sure to note that the firm still holds true to its Italian community roots since 49.5 percent of shares are held by three prominent ItalianCanadian families: Italo Rosati, Joseph Vitale and Romeo Di Battista. “We have one foot in the community and one foot in the mainstream,” said Di Felice. “Everythinig TLN does is reflective of that duality.” As Canada’s most-watched ethnic specialty channel, TLN offers viewers a variety of domestic and international programming, including news, drama and comedy series, feature films, music specials, soap operas and live soccer from Italy, Europe and Latin America. Roughly 75 percent of programming is in either Italian or Spanish and the leftover 25 percent is in English. Its Spanish-language programming comes from a variety of broadcasters, including Univision, Televisa, Telemundo and CNN en Español. The Italian programming also hails from a number of sources, but much of it comes from Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset. For its English-language viewers, the station airs such famed U.S. series as The Sopranos , Everybody Loves Raymondand George Lopez. TLN also commissions independent producers to create local programming like documentaries that will target Canadians who want to learn more about their surroundings. Telelatino also boasts a number of digital channels. Italy’s Sky TG 24, a news, information and talk channel, was launched in mid-2005, while TLN en Español debuted in 2007. The latter channel is an all-Spanish version of TLN. It is the first Canadian-produced 24-hour 100 percent Hispanic channel serving the Latin Canadian community. On top of these, TLN also distributes Video Italia, an all-Italian channel that features music, concerts, videos and interviews. Additionally, TLN touts itself as “the home of the best international football (soccer),” and airs coverage of the world’s most celebrated leagues, including more than 150 matches, such as Italy’s premier league Serie A, Italian Championship Soccer and the top teams in Europe competing for the UEFA Champions League cup. And as if that wasn’t enough, football fans will be pleased to find that TLN is the official co-sponsor, along with CBC, of all 32 FIFA tournaments from 2007 to 2014, including the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups. Though it may seem surprising that Canada would have a need for a channel dedicated solely to Latinos and Italians, there is most definitely a niche. According to a 2006 Census report, Spanish was the number one foreign language spoken in Canada, with 909,000 Canadians speaking the language conversationally. The number grew to more than one million the following year. Also in 2006, Spanishspeakers were the third-largest group of non-English speaking immigrants to Canada, surpassing Punjabi speakers, and behind only Mandarin and Arabic speakers. There are roughly 369,000 Spanish-speakers in Ontario, 369,000 in Quebec and 244,000 in western Canada. Di Felice, who himself is an immigrant to Canada, having been born in Argentina to Italian parents who whisked him off to Toronto when he was just a boy, noted that he is exactly the type of V I D E O • A G E JA N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 22 S a l u t e t o T L N TLN broadcasts U.S. hits Raymond, George Lopez and Sopranos “Like never before,” said Di Felice, “we want to use the occasion to celebrate the civic engagement and contributions of immigrant Latino Canadians to our great country.” To observe the birthday, the network is spearheading a number of communityoriented grassroots initiatives, including launching an endowment program that will annually award a prize to an undergraduate student at Toronto’s York University who writes the best essay about Hispanic life in Canada. Additionally, TLN is working with Canada’s largest book publisher, Kids Can Press, to distribute books, such as “The Kids Book of Canadian Canada’s Premier Tri-language TV Network Celebrates 25 Years (Continued on Page 24) TLN founder Emilio Mascia (far left) with a group of community leaders
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