Local sales are also done in-house. It is clear that LBI wants to tap into the $2 billion-a-year Hispanic TV network advertising market. In 2008, EBITDA earnings for the LBI group were $43.8 million, and the growth potential remains big, considering that 35 million Hispanics, about 13 percent of the U.S. population, draw just two percent of ad spending annually. Lack of programming sales is not viewed as a drawback by Liberman. On the contrary, he sees it as an asset. “Univision and Telemundo were built on Spanish soap operas; novellas make up about 40 percent of programming at both networks. But audience research suggests Hispanic interest in the genre is waning. Bilingual households are hungry for lighter fare,” he said. That’s why Estrella features a steady diet of variety shows, music, news and comedy for its stations. “We counter-program the Univision model, which seems to be working. Audiences appreciate our slapstick humor. Viewers like our physical humor.” In his view, this is why audiences in Los Angeles, for example, reward his station with an up-to-16 percent share and a 2.3 primetime rating. But, this “asset” also has some drawbacks. While the Estrella venture is relatively low risk, promoting the network nationally will be a challenge, as many of its affiliates are digital signals that are not established in the marketplace. Plus, LBI has to contend with three negative factors: the fact that Hispanics will assimilate into the U.S. mainstream and thus be lost to Anglo stations; increased competition, which will further fragment the audience (newer Hispanic TV networks are now emerging, like LATV from Los Angeles and Mega TV from Miami). The marketplace could further heat-up, when cable giant Comcast will finalize the acquisition of NBC Universal, which includes the competing Telemundo network. “I would have the understandable concern that Comcast uses its dominant position in cable to limit access to homes for other Hispanic networks. Owning television networks and the main distribution system seems problematic from a competitive perspective,” said Liberman. Finally there is the fact that newcomers from Mexico don’t yet know about LBI. Not so, contended Lenard in regard to the latter. “Our branding consists of big name actors, theatrical stars and the best comedians from Mexico. People know these stars and follow them on our network when they cross the border.” Indeed, LBI has a great respect for its talent, to the point of erecting a statue of one of them, Adam Sanchez, in the main entrance of its Burbank station. Sanchez was a popular Mexican singer on LBI who died in a car accident in Mexico when he was 21 years old. Sanchez’s father, Chalino, was a well known artist who was murdered on stage while performing in Mexico. Shouldn’t you be on that pedestal, we ask Don José. “Not really,” he replied, “Adam Sanchez is more important than me.” JA N U A R Y 2 0 1 0 (Continued from Page 9) José Liberman’s Dream Lenard Liberman withVideoAge’s Dom Serafini
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