ESPN Latin America
Encyclopedia
ESPN Latin America is an ESPN
channel that broadcasts in Latin America, not to be confused with ESPN Deportes
, which is another channel which broadcasts in the United States in Spanish. ESPN Latin America is not available in the U.S., because is not authorized to air most of the programming seen on its U.S. sister channels due to television rights affecting the programs. It is adapted to the demands of Spanish-speaking
viewers, who tend to prefer football
and Hispanic baseball
players to the more Anglo-centric
programming or athletes.
ESPN Latin America first aired in 1989
. It cablecasts programs in Spanish; some of the programs are live or taped retransmissions of the sister channels ESPN
, ESPN2
and ESPN Deportes
. Some of those programs include English-language audio on a second audio program
(SAP) with commentators from sister channels of the U.S. or commentators who work just for the ESPN Latin America channel. One of the voiceover announcers who announces programming on TV commercials has also appeared as a voiceover substitute for CNBC
programs like Kudlow & Company
and Mad Money
in the U.S.
ESPN Latin America, unlike its U.S. sister channels, has more programs related to football
, such as live games from Spain's La Liga
. It also airs live retransmissions of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball
, the Home Run Derby, All-Star Game, Playoffs and World Series with Ernesto Jerez
as the Spanish-language play-by-play announcer and other baseball commentators such as Venezuela
n brothers Luis Alfredo Álvarez and Fernando Álvarez
and former Puerto Rican Major League Baseball
player Candy Maldonado
. On weekday mornings at 9 a.m. Eastern Time
, ESPN Latin America also airs the taped SportsCenter
programs which air live the night before on ESPN in the U.S. at 1 a.m. ET.
Many of the TV commercials shown on ESPN Latin America are for companies from Mexico
, Venezuela
and Argentina
, where the largest companies are based and where viewer numbers are higher.
ESPN Latin America's main competitor is News Corporation
's Fox Sports Latin America from Los Angeles (formerly called FOX Sports Americas), which, unlike ESPN Latin America (and like ESPN2 and ESPN+), has a FOX Sports Latin America Northern Cone channel for the Caribbean/Mexico baseball-focused region, and another channel called FOX Sports Latin America Southern Cone for Central and South America, which is more soccer-oriented.
The Disney
/Hearst Corporation
joint venture
has also added some secondary regional channels for the Spanish-speaking Americas in the last few years, like ESPN Dos
(ESPN2) for the Caribbean/Mexico region, and ESPN+
(ESPN Más) for most of South America (Argentina/Bolivia
/Chile
/Colombia
/Paraguay
/Peru
/Uruguay
).
The channel is also available in Portuguese for Brazil
, where ESPN also owns regional channel ESPN Brasil
. An exclusive feed for Brazil was launched on December 15, 2005, introducing programming subtitled in Portuguese
, ESPN Brasil programming and events commented by ESPN Brasil staff.
In November 2009, ESPN Latin America Networks (a subdivision of Disney & ESPN Media Networks Latin America) announced that the high definition
version of the channel would be launched on December 1, 2009 on the whole region.
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
channel that broadcasts in Latin America, not to be confused with ESPN Deportes
ESPN Deportes
ESPN Deportes is a cable television and radio network dedicated to broadcasting sports-related programming 24 hours a day to the Spanish-speaking community in the United States...
, which is another channel which broadcasts in the United States in Spanish. ESPN Latin America is not available in the U.S., because is not authorized to air most of the programming seen on its U.S. sister channels due to television rights affecting the programs. It is adapted to the demands of Spanish-speaking
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
viewers, who tend to prefer football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
and Hispanic baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
players to the more Anglo-centric
Anglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
programming or athletes.
ESPN Latin America first aired in 1989
1989 in sports
1989 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.-Alpine skiing:* Alpine Skiing World Cup** Men's overall season champion: Marc Girardelli, Luxembourg** Women's overall season champion: Vreni Schneider, Switzerland-American football:...
. It cablecasts programs in Spanish; some of the programs are live or taped retransmissions of the sister channels ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
, ESPN2
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
and ESPN Deportes
ESPN Deportes
ESPN Deportes is a cable television and radio network dedicated to broadcasting sports-related programming 24 hours a day to the Spanish-speaking community in the United States...
. Some of those programs include English-language audio on a second audio program
Second audio program
Second audio program , also known as secondary audio programming, is an auxiliary audio channel for analog television that can be broadcast or transmitted both over the air and by cable TV.-Usage:...
(SAP) with commentators from sister channels of the U.S. or commentators who work just for the ESPN Latin America channel. One of the voiceover announcers who announces programming on TV commercials has also appeared as a voiceover substitute for CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
programs like Kudlow & Company
Kudlow & Company
The Kudlow Report is a news television program about business and politics hosted by Lawrence Kudlow, that airs on the CNBC television channel at 7pm ET. The show began airing on January 26, 2009. It is a successor to Kudlow & Company, which aired from 2005 until October 2008...
and Mad Money
Mad Money
Mad Money is an American finance television program hosted by Jim Cramer that began airing on CNBC on March 14, 2005. Its main focus is investment and speculation, particularly in publicly traded stocks...
in the U.S.
ESPN Latin America, unlike its U.S. sister channels, has more programs related to football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
, such as live games from Spain's La Liga
La Liga
The Primera División of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional , commonly known as La Liga or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system...
. It also airs live retransmissions of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball
Sunday Night Baseball
Sunday Night Baseball is the Major League Baseball exclusive game of the week that is televised Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN during the regular season...
, the Home Run Derby, All-Star Game, Playoffs and World Series with Ernesto Jerez
Ernesto Jerez
Ernesto Jerez is a sportscaster from the Dominican Republic.His parents are Angel Alejandro Jerez Matos, and Dulce María Bueno Núñez. He is the 3rd...
as the Spanish-language play-by-play announcer and other baseball commentators such as Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n brothers Luis Alfredo Álvarez and Fernando Álvarez
Fernando Alvarez
Fernando Enrique Alvarez is an Argentine macroeconomist. He is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. in Economics at Universidad Nacional de La Plata in 1989 and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1994...
and former Puerto Rican Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
player Candy Maldonado
Candy Maldonado
Candido Maldonado Guadarrama is a former Major League Baseball outfielder from to for the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs, and Texas Rangers. Chris Berman, a fellow ESPN analyst, called him the "Candyman"...
. On weekday mornings at 9 a.m. Eastern Time
North American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
, ESPN Latin America also airs the taped SportsCenter
SportsCenter
SportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network ESPN since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major...
programs which air live the night before on ESPN in the U.S. at 1 a.m. ET.
Many of the TV commercials shown on ESPN Latin America are for companies from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, where the largest companies are based and where viewer numbers are higher.
ESPN Latin America's main competitor is News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
's Fox Sports Latin America from Los Angeles (formerly called FOX Sports Americas), which, unlike ESPN Latin America (and like ESPN2 and ESPN+), has a FOX Sports Latin America Northern Cone channel for the Caribbean/Mexico baseball-focused region, and another channel called FOX Sports Latin America Southern Cone for Central and South America, which is more soccer-oriented.
The Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
/Hearst Corporation
Hearst Corporation
The Hearst Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower, Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by William Randolph Hearst as an owner of newspapers, the company's holdings now include a wide variety of media...
joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...
has also added some secondary regional channels for the Spanish-speaking Americas in the last few years, like ESPN Dos
ESPN Dos
ESPN Dos, best known as ESPN2 , is a cable television network operated by ESPN International broadcasting in Mexico, Venezuela, Central America and Dominican Republic....
(ESPN2) for the Caribbean/Mexico region, and ESPN+
ESPN+
ESPN + is an ESPN channel based in Argentina broadcasting to 8 countries of South America. Its programming is mostly football, tennis and rugby union related...
(ESPN Más) for most of South America (Argentina/Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
/Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
/Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
/Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
/Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
/Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
).
The channel is also available in Portuguese for Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, where ESPN also owns regional channel ESPN Brasil
ESPN Brasil
ESPN Brasil is a Brazilian cable television network. Launched in June 1995 through a joint venture between ESPN Inc. and Grupo Abril's television arm TVA, ESPN Brasil was the first country-specific version of ESPN outside the United States. Today, the network has 12.2 million subscribers...
. An exclusive feed for Brazil was launched on December 15, 2005, introducing programming subtitled in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, ESPN Brasil programming and events commented by ESPN Brasil staff.
In November 2009, ESPN Latin America Networks (a subdivision of Disney & ESPN Media Networks Latin America) announced that the high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
version of the channel would be launched on December 1, 2009 on the whole region.
See also
- List of ESPN Latin America announcers
- Latin American sports television broadcast contracts