• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 4, 2012

CNN is planning to launch a new Spanish-language news service next year, according to the Los Angeles Times. Produced by CNN en Español, CNN Latino will consist of an eight-hour daily block of news, documentaries, talk shows, and lifestyle content specifically targeted at U.S. Hispanics.

It will debut in January on KBEH-DT Channel 63 in Los Angeles; later it will be carried by local broadcast TV stations in other cities via syndication.
 
By going beyond simply translating English-language news to producing original Spanish-language content, CNN Latino is intended to compete with other Spanish-language news providers, including Univision, Telemundo, and Azteca America.

Appealing to U.S. Hispanics increasingly calls for a bicultural as well as bilingual approach, acknowledging the complex identities of people who either moved to the U.S. as children or young adults or were born here to immigrant parents.
 
Other English-language news providers are looking to tap the U.S. Latino market, in some cases through partnerships with Spanish-language media companies. This fall, News Corp. partnered with a Colombian TV network, RCN Television, to launch MundoFox. ABC News is working with Univision to create a 24-hour English-language news channel for U.S. Hispanics.
 
Univision also revealed plans to launch a national, Spanish-language AM radio network featuring local, national and international news. The new network, Univision America, will include AM stations in nine major Univision markets: Miami, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, McAllen, TX, El Paso, San Antonio, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
 
Overall, there are about 53 million Hispanics living in the U.S., representing about 17% of the total population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, including 15.5 million naturalized legal immigrants. Nielsen estimates that the U.S. Hispanic population will wield about $1.5 trillion in buying power in 2015.

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