Estrella TV


Estrella TV is an American Spanish-language broadcast television network that is owned by the Estrella Media subsidiary of HPS Investment Partners, LLC. The network primarily features programs, the vast majority of which are produced by the network itself, aimed at Hispanic and Latino American audiences – featuring a mix of variety and sketch comedy series, Entertainment, reality television series, scripted anthology drama series, news, sports, and imported Mexican-produced feature films.
Estrella TV's programming, production and advertising operations are headquartered in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, California. The network's operations are overseen by Estrella Media CEO Peter Markham, who has been in the post since the departure of co-founder Lenard Liberman amid a corporate reorganization in October 2019. The network is available in many media markets via low-power and some full-power over-the-air broadcast television stations, and on select cable television providers through either a local broadcast affiliate or the network's default national feed.

History

Beginnings

Estrella TV's beginnings trace back to 1998, when Liberman Broadcasting – owner of Spanish language radio stations in several media markets with large Spanish language populations, including four radio stations in the third largest U.S. market – made its entry into television broadcasting when its founders, Mexican-born media executive Jose Liberman and his son Lenard, purchased KRCA in Los Angeles, California, a television station affiliated with the Shop at Home Network at the time.
On August 31, 1998, Liberman converted KRCA into an independent station with a dual-ethnic programming format. The station ran a block of Spanish language programs during its daytime schedule – running from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekdays – originally consisting largely of dubbed versions of drama series from the Universal Television library and Mexican-produced feature films; the remainder of KRCA's schedule consisted of Asian-imported programming from Japan and various South Asian countries. By 2002, KRCA dropped its Asian-imported programming and became a Spanish language outlet full-time. Liberman acquired two additional stations over the next six years; in 2001, the company bought English independent KZJL in Houston, Texas. Then in 2004, it purchased KMPX in Dallas–Fort Worth, which then served as the original flagship owned-and-operated station of religious broadcaster Daystar ; Liberman also purchased low-power station KSDX-LP in San Diego, California that same year.
In 1999, Liberman formed a production division within its LBI Media unit to produce original programming content that would be distributed to the stations, focusing on a mix of variety series, sketch comedy, scripted drama and music programs, talk shows and game shows. One of its earliest programs, the reality game show Gana la Verde, caused controversy after several immigrant advocacy groups and California U.S. House Reps. Xavier Becerra, Hilda Solis and Linda Sánchez complained that the format – which debuted in July 2004, and featured Undocumented people competing in extreme Fear Factor-style competitions for the opportunity to win one year of legal assistance from an immigration attorney to help them obtain a green card – put its participants in danger of deportation by immigration authorities aware of the show. Programming production ramped up in 2004 with series that included:
Recognizing that the independents could not compete in that arena with the two dominant national Spanish language networks, Univision and Telemundo, Liberman opted not to produce or acquire telenovelas for the stations, opting instead to produce lower-cost programming to counterprogram the longer-established networks. Although much smaller in size than the parents of Univision and Telemundo, Liberman was more than willing to open its wallets to sign talent from popular Latin American countries to star in its programs, in addition to using performers from the U.S.
By 2006, the company had adopted a consistent branding for its three television stations under the brand "Estrella TV". Liberman expanded the Estrella TV format to other markets where it acquired television stations, featuring much of the same programs as those aired by the Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston outlets. On May 30, 2007, Liberman Broadcasting purchased KPNZ in Salt Lake City, Utah from Utah Communications, LLC for $10 million ; then on August 18, 2008, the company purchased low-power station KVPA-LP in Phoenix, Arizona from Latin America Broadcasting, Inc. for $1.25 million.
As Liberman expanded its programming to other O&Os, its mix of programming shifted to appeal towards various Hispanic and Latino audiences and helped the pseudo-network beat its major competitors. In the Los Angeles market, the programs helped KRCA become a strong ratings competitor, even beating Telemundo owned-and-operated station KVEA for second place among the market's Spanish language stations during the November 2008 sweeps period, at which time KMPX and KZJL also beat the respective Telemundo outlets for second in all key adult demographics among the Spanish stations in the Houston and Dallas markets. In all five markets, the Estrella TV-branded stations ranked in second place among Hispanic adults in the 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 demographic, beating Telemundo's ratings by as much as 100% and Telefutura's by as much as 64% during the weekday early fringe and prime time periods.

National expansion

On January 27, 2009, at the National Association of Television Program Executives Convention in Las Vegas, Liberman Broadcasting announced that it would turn the Estrella TV concept into a full-fledged national network that would launch at a then-yet-determined date later that year, which would be targeted at adults between the ages of 18 and 49 years old. Liberman had explored the possibility of developing a national network in 2007, when it raised $200 million in capital to acquire additional television stations and expand programming production. LBI Media's decision to launch the network came despite experiencing revenue declines that affected other broadcasting companies during the Great Recession.
To counterprogram networks that already established a foothold with the Hispanic and Latino demographic, Liberman chose to maintain the existing format used by the company's independent stations and have Estrella TV rely on the company's extensive library of original programming that originated on the six outlets as well as newer content for its inaugural schedule – including Estudio 2; Secretos; !A Que no Puedes¡; José Luis sin Censura; Los Chuperamigos, a sketch comedy series led by Lilliana Arriaga and a cast of popular Mexican comedic actors including Luis De Alba, Alejandro Suarez, Maribel "La Pelangocha" Fernandez and Carlos Bonavides; El Show de Lagrimita y Costel, a variety series hosted by father and son comedians Costel and Guillermo Cienfuegos in clown attire; and two daily news programs and Alarma TV. The initial original programming-focused slate made up the majority of its schedule, running for a total of 56 hours per week from early-afternoon through prime time on Monday through Saturdays.
Liberman had set July 1 as the date for Estrella TV's projected national launch by March 2009, however the company ultimately delayed the rollout by 3½ months; the national Estrella TV network formally commenced programming on September 14, 2009. On March 8, 2010, Nielsen began to include Estrella TV in the ratings provider's People Meter sample reports, alongside the other major Spanish language broadcast networks; the network was initially not listed in the daily "Television Index" reports that incorporate the other networks.
Over time, Estrella TV made major inroads in approaching viewership parity with Univision, Telemundo and Telefutura. By November 2012, Estrella TV ranked in fourth place in total viewers among all Hispanic broadcast networks, with an average of around 200,000 viewers. It was the only Spanish language network to experience an increase in viewership year-over-year during October 2013, the network placed third during prime time in total viewership among Hispanic audiences and in the demographic of Hispanic adults between the ages of 25 and 54, with the newsmagazine Alarma TV and late-evening national newscast Noticiero Enrique Gratas ranking within the 20 highest-rated Spanish-language television programs. On January 7, 2014, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was appointed by Liberman Broadcasting to serve as a senior advisor for the network, helping provide input in its programming, community and advertiser relations. In hiring Villaraigosa, Liberman CEO Lenard Liberman cited the company's need to "increase our sensitivity and understanding of the needs of the Hispanic community," with Villaraigosa citing in part that he was drawn to the "human capital" behind the network.
On May 15, 2015, Liberman Broadcasting announced that Estrella TV would launch a multichannel production firm, Fenómeno Studios, which would develop programming content targeted at millennials between the ages and 18 and 34. The studio, which launched that June, would produce specialized genre-based content from a facility near Liberman's corporate headquarters and production studios in Burbank, featuring separate production soundstages, edit bays and offices, with the intent to use existing performers from Estrella TV shows with a broad presence on social media and attract existing YouTube talent that would have their content distributed on the Fenómeno online network – with the possibility of some newer talent curated on the Fenómeno networks being considered for program development crossover to the linear Estrella TV network. On May 31, 2019, Liberman Broadcasting shut down Fenomeno Studios due to their bankruptcy from the network, its unknown whether or not Fenomeno Studios will return later this year. Estrella TV assumed a permanent channel slot on DirecTV on October 4, 2016, taking over the channel 442 slot previously occupied by Azteca México, which was discontinued by Mexican network TV Azteca in favor of focusing on its domestic Azteca América broadcast network.
In 2018, Estrella TV was the only American television network to experience total day ratings growth in cable viewership among viewers over age 12 between the same period in 2016. That year saw Estrella TV begin producing new drama and comedy series such as LOL and Tarde lo Conocí. On October 10, 2018, Estrella TV re-ordered the Hispanic television landscape, when it bumped UniMás for third place among the national Spanish language networks in the weeknight prime time period, accomplishing a goal that Liberman had wanted for the network since its launch. However it is unknown whether or not the network is still ranked as third place after it was confirmed that Unimas finished the 2018/2019 season as third.
On November 21, 2018, Liberman Broadcasting filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The company—which claimed assets worth between $100 million and $500 million and liabilities worth between $500 million and $1 billion—sought to reduce its overall debt by more than $350 million and secured $38 million in debtor-in-possession financing. On April 17, 2019, Liberman obtained approval of its reorganization plan from the Delaware bankruptcy court, with the expectation that it would be able to clear its balance sheet within the following several months. As a result, Estrella TV suspended production of or cancelled outright several series on its schedule; among them, the talk show Noches con Platanito, which was temporarily replaced by the telenovela La Esclava Blanca for three months beginning on June 20, while its morning news programs Primera Edición and Buenos Dias Familia were discontinued and replaced by a double-run of telenovelas and a rebroadcast of the previous weeknight's edition of Cierre de Edición. On October 15, 2019, Liberman Broadcasting completed its reorganization plan, turning over ownership of the company—which was formally renamed LBI Media, Inc.—to its first lien lender, private equity firm HPS Investment Partners, LLC, which sponsored the reorganization plan; the reorganization eliminated more than $350 million of debt from its balance sheet. As part of the corporate reorganization, co-founder/CEO Lenard Liberman divested his equity in LBI, and was replaced as the company's CEO by former Granite Broadcasting and Communications Corporation of America Chairman Peter Markham. On February 3, 2020, LBI Media rebranded as Estrella Media, borrowing its name from the network, with the network and its corporate parent adopting a unified logo brand utilizing a four-pointed star. On the same day was the launch of a new late night talk show hosted by popular Mexican Youtuber and voice actor Alex Montiel titled “Nos Cayó la Noche”, which replaces Noches Con Platanito citing updated changes to the networks programming ever since the it was under new management.

Programming

, Estrella TV operates on a 113-hour network programming schedule. Its base programming feed provides various types of general entertainment programming Monday through Fridays from 6:30 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time; the network also carries a half-hour of children's programming – which comply with core programming guidelines defined by the Federal Communications Commission's Children's Television Act – on Monday through Saturday mornings at 8:30 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, consisting of dubbed versions of wildlife and nature programs originally produced in English that comply with educational programming. All remaining time periods are filled with infomercials that were either originally produced or dubbed into Spanish, a block that had previously made up half the network's broadcast day at its debut, but now is limited to between midnight and 6:00 a.m. ET/PT. The network carries a separate block of additional entertainment programs on Los Angeles flagship station KRCA on Monday through Fridays from 1:00 to 2:30 a.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00 to 2:00 a.m.
The majority of Estrella TV's programming schedule relies on the extensive library of originally-produced television programs that are produced the production division of and owned by network parent company LBI Media, incorporating both first-run and archived programs, which comprised a total of more than 5,000 hours of entertainment content at the network's launch. The network's series programming primarily covers formats common in Spanish language television broadcasters in the U.S. and other countries, consisting of reality, talk and variety programming as well as music, drama and sketch comedy programs, with some programs having originally aired in Los Angeles on KRCA and syndicated to Liberman's Spanish language independent stations prior to the formation of the network.
Much of Estrella TV's programming consists of variety series, comedy series, reality programs, along with a limited amount of scripted programs.
On September 14 2009 the day the network Estrella TV launched, unveils “Estellas Hoy” an entertainment show that offers viewers an exclusive and unprecedented look into the world of top Latino celebrities. The show was previously hosted by Jorge Gomez Haro and Lilli Brillanti. Gino del Corte and Andrea Rincón, and Victoria Del Rosal have been taking the helm of the show until July 27 when the show was cancelled and replaced with a newsmagazine titled “I Testigo”. On June 11 the network returned an entertainment news offering with El Mameluco a show similar to Dish Nation focusing on celebrity entertainment news told by their perspective. The shows hosts are Ricardo “Rika” Rubio, Giselle Bravo, Said Garcia, and Stephanie Gerard. The show premiered in select US cities and started making its Television debut on August 6.
As of 2015, the network's longest-running first-run entertainment program is Tengo Talento, Mucho Talento, a reality talent competition series similar in format to the Got Talent franchise which debuted on October 5, 2009. Among its early program offerings was Estrellitas Del Sabado, a two-hour family variety series featuring talent from children ages 12 and under and hosted by Itati Cantoral, which was designed to compete with Univision's then-Saturday night stalwart Sabado Gigante; the program was cancelled in 2012, after two seasons. The Saturday evening time period has been partly filled since then by Sabados en Concierto, a weekly series of concert performances from various traditional and contemporary Latin music artists that is an offshoot of a series of Friday night concert specials that began airing in October 2010. The network debuted its first original miniseries on November 15, 2013, Jenni – La Vida de Una Diva, a ten-episode series chronicling the life and career of singer Jenni Rivera, though it was an unofficial unendorsed miniseries due to Rivera's long-time association with mun2 and Telemundo.
At its launch, Liberman Broadcasting president/CEO Lenard Liberman cited that it would not carry telenovelas as part of its schedule, citing the genre's skewing towards an older and more female audience; however, the network would eventually reverse course in 2015, when it began to incorporate acquired telenovelas as part of its schedule, however these programs currently only occupy an hour of the network's weekday daytime schedule. The network also regularly airs imported Spanish-language feature films originally produced in Mexico and South American countries on weekday afternoons seven days a week; the film roster does not concentrate on films from any specific era, meaning any film from the black-and-white era to contemporary times, and films made for either domestic theatrical or home video/DVD release can be featured. As of 2018, Estrella TV now carries telenovelas and other serialized dramatic series distributed by Caracol Internacional.
In 2017, Estrella TV launched its first sitcom, Las Vega's, focusing on the lives of four women who uncover secrets of how their husband and father died. On August 6, 2018, the network launched El Mameluco, an hour-long entertainment news program formatted similarly to the English language syndicated program Dish Nation; hosted by veteran radio producer Ricardo Rubio "El Pinche Rika", journalist and Radio producer Said Garcia, radio and TV personality Giselle Bravo, and actress/singer/comedienne Stephanie Gerard, El Mameluco originally premiered as a series on Facebook Live in select U.S. cities before making its national television debut. As of April 2020, the show is being broadcast remotely on Facebook Live as “El Mameluco Desde Casa” due to the coronavirus pandemic. On June 1, the network is set to debut a new entertainment news show titled “Chismes En Vivo”, hosted by Chisme no Like hosts “Elisa Beristain and Javier Ceriani”, replacing El Mameluco under updated programming changes that are being made ever since the network began being under new management since February of 2020
On October 30, 2018, Estrella TV signed a multi-year agreement with Fremantle North America to broadcast 100 Latinos Dijeron, an American Spanish-language adaptation of Family Feud that previously aired on the now-defunct MundoMax from 2013 to 2016, in early 2019. The program, which is hosted by actor/comedian Armando Hernandez, debuted on the network on February 19, 2019. During its second season run, the network added actor and comedian Mau Nieto as new host and later became a key figure in ratings success of the show. As of 2020, repeats of the first season run with Armando Hernandez are being aired weekdays at 11 A.M hour
On February 3, 2020, Estrella TV revamped its prime time lineup, adding the talk show Nos Cayó la Noche, hosted by popular Mexican YouTuber Alex Montiel, and added a half-hour version of the Fenomeno Studios web series Pepe's Office. On February 20, Alarma TV returned to its regular hour by popular demand, which involved Pepe's Office being replaced by a comedy web series titled Enchufe TV, citing programming changes that made more sense for its television ratings.

News programming

Estrella TV operates a news division under the umbrella brand Noticias Estrella TV ; the division, as "Noticiero Estrella TV," launched with the network on September 14, 2009, with the premiers of two flagship half-hour, Monday-through-Friday evening news programs, Noticiero Estrella TV, and Cierre de Edición, which have respectively aired at 5:30 and 10:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time since their debuts. The division is also joined by a half-hour late-night daily newsmagazine series Alarma TV, focusing mainly on caught-on-tape videos and news stories throughout Latin America and across the globe, and straight news and features-based morning news program En La Mañana. Estrella TV's news division also broadcasts occasional special news covearge such as U.S. and Mexican elections, and the State of the Union Address. Throughout these difficult times, the Estrella TV News department has been delivering a complete coverage of all the latest news updates of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak titled “Noticiero Estrella TV: Reportaje especial Coronavirus la Pandemia” that has caused so many lives across the US with three additional news hours from 12:00/4:00/9:00, which concluded on May 29, resuming the networks daily programming a few days later.
On April 13, 2010, Liberman Broadcasting announced that it had reached a deal with veteran journalist Enrique Gratas to join Estrella TV as anchor of a prime time newscast that would serve as the companion to the early-evening broadcast, Noticiero con Enrique Gratas, which debuted six days later on April 19. Differing somewhat in tone compared to the early evening edition, the program – which adopted its current title, Cierre de Edición in 2013, and airs at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time – provides more in-depth analysis of news stories affecting the U.S. Hispanic community, similar to the late-night newscast that Gratas formerly anchored for Univision from 1999 until he was laid off by that network in 2009, Noticiero Univision: Última Hora. Gratas expanded his duties in 2011, with a short-lived weekly investigative newsmagazine El Momento con Enrique Gratas. Gratas took a sabbatical from Cierre de Edición in August 2015 due to ongoing health issues, but remained the main anchor of the program until his death from a reported diagnosis of metastatic cancer at age 71 on October 8, 2015. Pedro Ferriz Híjar was named anchor of Cierre de Edición and En La Lucha on February 2, 2016, and debuted later that month.
In 2013, Estrella TV hired another veteran of Univision's news division, Myrka Dellanos, to serve as main anchor of its early evening newscast Noticiero Estrella TV, and host a series of interview specials for the network, En Exclusiva con Myrka Dellanos. Dellanos left the network on April 24, 2015, and was subsequently replaced on Noticiero Estrella TV by Adriana Ruggiero, a former evening anchor at Los Angeles flagship station KRCA. A few months later the network replaced Adriana Ruggiero by Adriana Yanez.
On June 28, 2015, in the runup to the 2016 Presidential election, the network debuted En La Lucha, a half-hour Sunday midday political and current affairs program featuring panel discussions on various political and socioeconomic topics of impact to the Latino community in the United States. The program was originally hosted by Hernán Molina – who in addition to such roles at Univision, CNN en Español and NTN24, previously served as a political analyst for Los Angeles flagship station KRCA – and also served as the program's co-managing editor until his termination by Liberman in December 2015. Subsequently, on July 6, the network replaced the cancelled Estrellas Hoy with iTestigo, an hour-long entertainment "news" focusing on user-generated citizen journalism content of news events and social issues from around the world. During the month of December of 2016 the network canceled En la Lucha and replaced it with repeats of classic programming of the network.
On January 9, 2017, Estrella TV launched two weekday morning news programs: Primera Edicion, which focuses on news affecting the Latino community, and Buenos Dias Familia, a two hour-long program focusing primarily on current events, celebrity interviews, human interest stories and entertainment news. The latter program was originally announced by Liberman Broadcasting CEO Lenard Liberman at the network's May 12, 2014 upfront presentation in New York, originally intending to be a three-hour morning news and lifestyle program described as "an original alternative" to morning programs aired on its competitors and scheduled for a debut that fall; feature films, educational programming and a rebroadcast of Cierre de Edición continued to air in the program's intended time period until it formally debuted three years later, when the network overhauled its morning lineup to include repeats of defunct original variety series following Buenos Dias Familia. On May 31, 2019, Estrella TV cancelled Buenos Días, Familia and Primera Edicion citing low ratings for both programs, with their last editions airing on that day and their former time slots being filled by a rebroadcast of the previous weeknight's edition of Cierre de Edición and hour-long repeat blocks of telenovelas previously shown on the network in the 7:30 to 10:00 a.m. ET slot. On November 8 of that year, the network resumed a morning news offering with the debut of En La Mañana, a two-hour morning hard news program hosted by Natalia Garduño, Javier Olivares, and Rosy Martell, which focuses on national and world news, weather, entertainment and sports news. On June 22 the show got revamped with additional new hosts including Tomas Rubio, Giselle Bravo and Said Garcia with News of the day, entertainment, interviews, Sports, weather.
Locally among the network's station body, Estrella TV has fewer stations that have an independent news operation than those of Univision and Telemundo; these in-house news departments are primarily limited to Estrella TV's owned-and-operated stations, including at Los Angeles flagship station KRCA, which had a news operation at the network's launch. On April 29, 2019, Estrella TV started to expand its news operations among its O&Os in three key markets with the premiere of daily evening local newscasts in Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Miami ; newscasts on those three stations are produced out of the studios of its Dallas-based O&O KMPX, which was established as a production hub for the respective twice-daily programs.

Sports programming

Estrella TV also operates a sports division Estrella TV Deportes which also originates from the networks Burbank headquarters. The division, which is responsible for creating sports content on Estrella TV, has produced association football matches from Liga MX involving Dorados de Sinaloa. As of 2020, the network is home to the Major League Soccer team for the Los Angeles Market and other future matches. The network also produces "Boxeo Estelar" a boxing series that airs every other Friday night by Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions, although it is unknown if the boxing series will return after Golden Boy ended their deal with the network and moved on to an agreement with DAZN. The division also does television specials including the Super Bowl.
On January 29, 2013, Estrella TV acquired its first broadcast television rights to a televised sporting event, when Liberman Broadcasting announced that it had signed an agreement with Alianza F.C. to obtain the exclusive U.S. Spanish broadcast rights to telecast Salvadoran Primera División soccer matches involving the El Salvador-based football club. Under the deal, which began with its first game broadcast six days later on February 3, the network would broadcast Alianza F.C.'s Sunday afternoon matches, and produce pre-game and post-game analysis programs bookending the telecasts. In May 2014, the network acquired the U.S. broadcast rights to the Liga MX-affiliated Copa Socio MX exhibition tournament, a six-game tournament involving teams within the league that is played in major U.S. venues.
On July 27, 2015, the network expanded its sports coverage when it reached a three-year programming agreement with Golden Boy Promotions, as the Oscar De La Hoya-founded boxing promotion's exclusive deal with Fox Sports Media Group expired due to Premier Boxing Champions's efforts which had Fox Sports sign with that circuit. Under the deal, Estrella TV obtained the rights to broadcast two live evening fight cards two weeks per month under the banner "Boxeo Estelar", as well as rights to the Friday night boxing showcase series LA Fight Club – the latter of which aired on the network as its first fight telecast on September 4, 2015. For the 2015-16 season, the network started carrying Liga MX soccer matches involving Dorados de Sinaloa. As of 2019, it is unknown weather the soccer matches will return for the club's 2019–20 season as a result of Dorados being realigned to the Ascenso MX league, or whether the network will air home matches of another soccer team. As of 2020 it is unknown whether the boxing series "Boxeo Estelar" will return since Golden Boy Promotions ended their deal with Estrella TV in end of 2018 and moved on to an agreement with DAZN.
On February 21 2020, the network returns to doing soccer matches with the new partnership with the fastest growing franchise in MLS. The Los Angeles station network 62 will be televising 17 of the clubs 34 regular season contests during the 2020 campaign at an unknown date, including 30 minute of pre game and post game shows, as well as exclusive content and original behind the scenes access to training, matches and more. On April 4, the network started airing LAFC flashbacks of previous matches for every Saturday while the season is currently suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak. On June 16, Estrella Media announced a licensing multi year partnership with Los Angeles Chargers, in which Estrella TV 62 Los Angeles and Que Buena 105.5/94.3 FM, will be home to Preseason matches and Radio home to all matches through the entire NFL season involving playoffs, with Pre and Post game shows and a weekly Chargers series and news throughout the year.

Specials

Since the network's inception, Estrella TV has broadcast Los Premios de la Radio, an annual awards ceremony held each November, honoring Mexican Regional music performers from classic and contemporary genres and involving Liebermann's radio stations. The network also holds the broadcast rights to Premios El Don, an award show held in January, awarding the contributions of Latinos in the American film industry.
On November 18, 2017, Estrella TV became the American Spanish language television broadcaster of Miss World, becoming the only U.S. television network to carry the beauty pageant.

Stations

, Estrella TV has seven owned-and-operated stations, and current and pending affiliation agreements with 45 additional television stations encompassing 49 states and the District of Columbia ; counting only its broadcast stations, the network has an estimated national reach of 39.37% of all households in the United States.
National advertising sales for the network are handled by the Spanish Media Rep Team, an LBI Media-owned sales organization that also sells spot advertising and handles sales representation for national accounts for Estrella TV owned-and-operated and affiliated stations; SMRT and local affiliates share the responsibility of selling advertising inventory, with affiliate stations retaining 40% of the commercial inventory not sold by Liberman. Stations are allowed the option to carry local programming – including newscasts, local public affairs programs, local brokered programming and political specials – in place of regular programming or infomercials aired within the base Estrella TV schedule.
After it announced the expansion of the Estrella TV concept into a national network, Liberman Broadcasting initially planned to launch the national Estrella TV network on all six of its existing independent stations, with company executives also immediately seeking agreements with prospective stations owned by other broadcasting companies to serve as charter affiliates of Estrella TV. Although it focused on affiliating with full-power stations, the network ultimately obtained primary channel affiliations in several markets where Liberman did not own a station, mainly via agreements with low-power stations. Liberman estimated that Estrella TV would have an initial market reach covering about 70% of all Hispanic-inhabited U.S. households at its launch.
On February 2, 2009, eight days after the network's national launch was first announced, Liberman entered into an affiliation agreement with Communications Corporation of America, which launched the network in five of the company's Texas stations; the deal originally encompassed subchannel affiliations for four stations – KTSM-TV in El Paso, KVEO in Brownsville, KWKT-TV in Waco and KETK-TV in Tyler – but later added KPEJ-TV in Odessa as another subchannel-only affiliate through a separate agreement on April 27, 2010.
By the network's launch date in September, Estrella TV had expanded its footprint of charter outlets, signing affiliation agreements with Tribune Broadcasting ; Sinclair Broadcast Group ; Sunbeam Television ; Titan Broadcast Management ; Belo ; and Hearst Television, helping to give the network affiliates in 68% of all Hispanic television households and nine of the ten largest Hispanic media markets in the U.S. Estrella TV debuted with 17 affiliated stations, in addition to the seven Liberman-owned charter stations, reaching near its national coverage goal with a Hispanic market reach of 68% and affiliates in nine of the ten largest Hispanic U.S. markets.
In addition, Liberman also purchased additional stations to serve as O&Os of the network, purchasing WASA-LP in Port Jervis, New York from Venture Technologies Group, LLC for $6 million on April 6, 2009 ; KWHD in Denver from LeSEA Broadcasting for $6.5 million on January 28, 2010 ; and W40BY in Chicago from the Trinity Broadcasting Network on February 22, 2010.
Estrella TV is natively transmitted in the aspect ratio, launching high definition operations in mid-2016 in the 720p format, though for the most part this is limited to a few over-the-air stations and cable and satellite providers; most stations carry Estrella TV on a digital subchannel solely in 480i standard definition and scale the signal down for that format. Although most series aired on the network produced before 2012 and "television" cuts of most films released before 2005 were originally formatted in 4:3, the network presents these programs in anamorphic widescreen by default; however, the network airs most commercials in their original picture format whenever possible. The national cable/satellite feed uses Liberman's Estrella station in Miami, WVFW-LD, as its signal source.
Although the network prefers traditional over-the-air distribution with supplementary carriage on cable and satellite providers, Estrella TV's programming is available in other areas of the United States through a national cable network feed that is distributed directly to select cable, direct-broadcast satellite and IPTV providers – particularly on dedicated Spanish language programming tiers which incorporate other networks that operate direct-to-pay-television feeds – as an alternative method of distribution in markets without either the availability or the demand for a local owned-and-operated or affiliate station of the network due to its smaller Hispanic population density.
Although most of Estrella TV's local affiliates carry the entire schedule, some pre-empt certain programs within the network's lineup in order to air newscasts or public affairs programs ; some also pre-empt paid programs within the network's overnight and early-morning infomercial block with other locally produced or brokered programming, or to move English-language network programming over due to breaking news situations on the affiliate's main signal.

Controversies

Indecency complaints concerning ''José Luis Sin Censura''

On February 28, 2011, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the National Hispanic Media Coalition filed a 200-page joint indecency complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Liberman Broadcasting and Estrella TV's Los Angeles flagship station KRCA, in response to content featured on the conflict talk show José Luis Sin Censura, due to repeated instances of verbal and physical abuse against LGBT and female guests.
The two organizations also provided s, video clips and still photographs allegedly sourced from the program to help illustrate the allegations described in the complaint, which featured pixellated nudity, various censored and uncensored profanity, anti-gay slurs and violent outbursts from angry audience members. GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios said in a statement regarding the offending content: "For years Liberman has ignored concerns from viewers as well as revenue loss from advertisers pulling spots. This material is some of the most violent and offensive on television today and the FCC should hold the broadcaster responsible for airing material which is putting gay and lesbian people in harm's way." GLAAD stated that representatives for the LGBT advocacy organization had met with Liberman executives in 2005, about excising the profanity, slurs and violent acts, but did not have their request granted, and acknowledged that several advertisers pulled advertising from the program following the previous campaign to tone down the content. Following the FCC filing, GLAAD subsequently partnerd with the Women's Media Center to launch an online campaign to urge supporters of the complaint to e-mail the Commission in support of or to file their own individual complaints. In referencing to the extremity of the content, NHMC president Alex Nogales referred in an announcement of the complaint, "José Luis makes Jerry Springer look like Mr. Rogers". More than 30 organizations also responded in the demand for Liberman to take action in regards of the program. According to GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios, "This show serves no role except to fuel a climate of intolerance and violence against our community. The FCC has an obligation to stand up against this offensive program, which has no place on our airwaves."
The groups subsequently launched a boycott against companies that maintained advertising sponsorships for José Luis Sin Censura, and created a petition on Change.org urging Liberman to take action regarding the show and its content. In response to the controversy, AT&T and Time Warner Cable withdrew their advertising from the program. In addition, Miami affiliate WSVN opted to pre-empt José Luis Sin Censura from its Estrella TV feed on digital channel 7.2, while KCTU-LD in Wichita, Kansas disaffiliated the network from one of its subchannels in late 2010, with the station's general manager Ron Nutt citing the network's programming in general "was so objectionable that, at one point or another, half of its viewership had called us with a complaint. They are going for sensationalism. If an English-language network put out this content, they would be asking for trouble." On August 8, 2012, Estrella TV agreed to officially cancel José Luis Sin Censura, immediately pulling the show from its schedule.
On November 15, 2013, the FCC's Enforcement Bureau filed an indecency enforcement action against Liberman Broadcasting, in which the company voluntarily agreed to pay $110,000 to settle the indecency complaints filed by GLAAD, the NHMC and others as part of a consent decree.

Carriage dispute with Comcast

In February 2015, during negotiations to renew its carriage agreement for Estrella TV's owned-and-operated stations in Denver, Houston and Salt Lake City, Liberman Broadcasting entered into a carriage dispute with Comcast over carriage fees and expanded distribution to all markets served by the provider's Xfinity service in 13 other markets. Chief executive officer Lenard Liberman cited that it was seeking to switch from must carry status for the network's carriage to a retransmission consent compensation model; he also cited concerns that Comcast's since-aborted merger with Time Warner Cable would result in the provider exerting too much leverage in programming deals, resulting in it favoring networks the company owns over minority-owned networks. Estrella TV launched an on-air and social media campaign on February 7, asking viewers to urge Comcast to continue carrying the network; however, representatives for Comcast countered that it expanded distribution of 60 independently operated Hispanic-focused networks across its systems, and while it was negotiating in good faith with Liberman, it did not want to raise subscriber rates to carry a network with "limited appeal".
In response, on February 11, California Rep. Tony Cárdenas circulated a letter to other U.S. House members, asking them to write to the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure that independent programmers would not be harmed should the Comcast-TWC merger receive federal approval. KETD, KZJL and KPNZ were all removed from Comcast's systems in the respective markets upon the agreement's expiration at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time on February 20, however, its stations in the 13 other markets where Comcast serves as a major cable provider were unaffected due to separate carriage agreements.