Cable News Network Agrees to Produce a Spanish Newscast

After more than a month of negotiations, Cable News Network (CNN) announced Wednesday that it has agreed to produce a weeknight newscast in Spanish for a major Spanish-language television network--a first for an English-language broadcaster.

Officials at the Atlanta-based network said CNN will produce a 30-minute newscast titled “Noticiero Telemundo-CNN” beginning May 31 for the Telemundo Television Group, one of two national Spanish-language networks in the United States. It will be seen locally at 6:30 p.m. week nights on KVEA-TV Channel 52.

“We are very excited about joining forces with CNN, the preeminent electronic news-gathering organization in the world,” Henry R. Silverman, Telemundo’s president and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. “This project demonstrates Telemundo’s continuing commitment to provide high quality, entertaining and relevant programming.”

In addition to the evening news, CNN will also produce a 60-minute weekend news-in-review show titled “Resumen Semanal Telemundo-CNN” and five daily news briefs, which remain to be scheduled.

Company officials declined to disclose the financial details of the agreement.

Telemundo owns and operates KVEA-TV in Glendale and four other stations, and has 11 other affiliates nationwide. The media conglomerate, owned by Reliance Capital Corp., claims to reach 60% of the nation’s Latino households.

Hallmark Cards Corp. was the first U.S. media conglomerate to carve out a Spanish-language TV empire. It owns KMEX-TV Channel 34 in Los Angeles and 10 other stations as well as Univision, the nation’s largest Spanish-language programming network.

The CNN-produced program will replace a program currently being produced by the Miami-based Hispanic-American Broadcasting Corp. titled “Noticiero Telemundo-HBC.”

Officials at HBC were not available for comment.