• by Erik Sass , July 2, 2009

The Spanish Beisbol Network is expanding its platform with new affiliate relationships with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Calif., New York Yankees and Texas Rangers. They allow SBN to offer advertisers more integrated sponsorships packages, while giving Hispanic viewers access to Spanish-language broadcasts of baseball games.

Altogether, SBN's deals with Major League Baseball teams give it access to a combined market of more than 17 million Hispanic Americans rooting for hometown teams. Hispanics are a bit more likely to be sports enthusiasts than the population overall, with 62% considering themselves MLB fans in particular versus 59% for the population overall, according to a March survey from Scarborough Research.

SBN has already attracted some big-name sponsors for integrated, multi-market deals, including American Airlines, Dunkin' Donuts, Wendy's, Corona, Johnnie Walker and Comcast. For the new markets, William A. Kulik Jr., president, Spanish Beisbol Network, said he was in discussions with "several clients, including Nationwide, for a Texas Rangers sponsorship. We got Wachovia Bank for an East Coast buy for the New York Yankees, as well as Philly and Washington, D.C." Kulik adds that there are "dozens of others" he is talking to about "a multi-team buy."

In addition, SBN announced that it launched a new Web site devoted to coverage of Latino baseball players, coaches and MLB teams. The Web site's content offerings -- all in Spanish -- include exclusive articles, photos and audio and video interviews with top Hispanic players, as well as a weekly fan opinion poll and blogs.