WAPA América coming to Mid July on Time Warner Cable in NYC, HOORAY!!!

[AlvaJr]

Found out on Multichannel News:

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6571025.html?q=wapa

Laura Martínez -- Multichannel News, 6/16/2008 12:50:00 PM

Starting Mid July, Time Warner's NYC cable system will begin to carry WAPA América, the cable and satellite superstation of Puerto Rico's WAPA-TV, as part of its Hispanic tier, the companies confirmed.

The agreement, whose financial terms were not disclosed, comes on the heels of WAPA's carriage deal with Bright House Network, who in March began to carry the Puerto Rico's station on its digital tier (channel 63) in Orland, Florida.

[EDIT]


End:

So welcome to WAPA América to my Time Warner Cable in NEW YORK CITY!, BORICUA! Y A GOZAR CON LA GRAN MANZANA EN NUEVA YORK Y HOORAY!

Gracias.


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[mequetrefe413]

It's about time for TWC to carry one of the fastest growing Spanish cable channels (and perhaps a very special "Superstation") in their side of the NYC cable market. They had been considering carrying the channel for quite a while, and they are going to find out soon enough how well this channel is received.

Only if Dish Network would ever listen to the remaining Puerto Rican customers in the states, rather than coming close to even pull WAPA out of their locals service in Puerto Rico...

 

[1069_KIFR]

So instead of saying 'superstation' it is now known as 'Call letters inserted here- America? Like WGN is marketing the station as WGN America!

 

[MarcB]

WAPA AMERICA cant hold a candle to Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura, or Galavision. A friend of mine who lived in Puerto Rico for a while says the programming god awful. And if the show that UPN 59 in New Haven used to carry from WAPA AMERICA is any indication of the type of programming they regularly show on WAPA AMERICA I'll agree with him. What's funny about a guy dressed in drag with a mustache who laughs incredibly loud like a hyena?

 

[JayR]

WAPA América

WAPA AMERICA can't hold a candle to Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura, or Galavision.

WAPA America airs a program none of the aforementioned networks airs:

WWC Superestrellas De La Lucha Libre

If only Telemundo (U.S.) would have signed on the IWA before NBCU re-signed with the WWE...

 

[BRNout]

I had the pleasure of touring WAPA's facilities in San Juan and it is an impressive place. They produce more programming than any big-market station that I can think of right now and were reminiscent of a 1950's network TV studio with wardrobe rooms, stages, various sets, etc. Lots of great talent there at all times of the day and my visit was a lot of fun.

The station is the most watched in Puerto Rico and is beloved by most Puerto Ricans. It is certainly NOT blown away on the island by Univision and absolutely NOT by Telemundo. Given New York's demographics, I am surprised that it wasn't added sooner.

 

[mequetrefe413]

WAPA AMERICA cant hold a candle to Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura, or Galavision. A friend of mine who lived in Puerto Rico for a while says the programming god awful. And if the show that UPN 59 in New Haven used to carry from WAPA AMERICA is any indication of the type of programming they regularly show on WAPA AMERICA I'll agree with him. What's funny about a guy dressed in drag with a mustache who laughs incredibly loud like a hyena?

WAPA in San Juan has always given a run to Univision and Telemundo, especially when you focus on local news and locally produced programming. As far as the USA goes, WAPA America is not aiming at Univision, Telemundo, Azteca America and Telefutura, since none of them want to air programing that would be attractive to Puerto Ricans, but they have taken a toll on advertising revenue from Galavision. No, they will not have the audience that Galavision has, but they have made some noise since their launch four years ago. They speak "Puerto Rican", something the major services don't do at all.

And as far as your friend from PR (who either probably does not watch any of the local channels over there, or works for Dish Network which hates WAPA as a local in PR, and REFUSE TO CARRY WAPA America on Dish Latino), that show with the guy dressed in drag was one of the most successful comedy shows in Prime Time. The show got cancelled after they guy hosting the show decided to go to WKAQ (Telemundo's affiliate), and went from signing checks to have a check signed by someone at NBC-Universal.

 

[mequetrefe413]

Re: WAPA América

WAPA AMERICA can't hold a candle to Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura, or Galavision.

WAPA America airs a program none of the aforementioned networks airs:

WWC Superestrellas De La Lucha Libre

If only Telemundo (U.S.) would have signed on the IWA before NBCU re-signed with the WWE...

Telemundo could had done that for the "Telemundo Puerto Rico" channel, but the costs to clear syndication nationally for IWA-PR's "Impacto Total" and "Zona Caliente" were far more expensive to obtain, compared to what WWC asked for to have their programs on WAPA America (and they gave WAPA and WAPA America "Global Syndication Rights", which includes airing their shows over the internet on WAPA.TV).

And speaking of "Super Estrellas De La Lucha Libre", it happens to be the longest running show that is still on the air on TV in PR ("Show De Las Doce" is the record holder with 40 years, months, while "Super Estrellas.." has been on the air for about 35 years, and still going).

 

[mequetrefe413]

Given New York's demographics, I am surprised that it wasn't added sooner.

From someone what knows one of the voiceover guys at WAPA America, there were several reasons"

1. Telemundo's deal with Cablevision to exclusively carry "Telemundo Puerto Rico-USA" feed as the only channel from Puerto Rico for two years. Cablevision added WAPA after many complaints reguarding the joke Telemundo PR-USA was.

2. Long negotiations with Time Warner Cable (TWC was playing harball in reguards of cost per customer, but after they found out that Cablevision, DirecTV, RCN, Cox, Qwest, and especially Comcast pay the same rate as they would pay, they had no other choice to ink the deal)

3. Pressure from Univisionand Telemundo to keep this channel out of Cablevision and Time Warner's Latino packages (WAPA America's president used to be Telemundo Network's first president, which made it a mission that several shows from WKAQ TV were on the main network in their earlier years, and WAPA was originally supposed to be purchased by Univision, but since Pegasus insisted on keeping local programming, Univision decided to buy WLII-11 and WSUR-9 and change TeleOnce into Univision Puerto Rico).

4. Negative campaining from Dish Network (they refuse to carry WAPA America at any price, and earlier this year almost plugged WAPA out of the locals from PR because they felt WAPA was expensive at a cost per subscriber that was actually a third to what they pay for WKAQ and WIPR. Note: Puerto Rico is an unrated market by Nielsen, which makes it not elegible for the use of the "must carry" rule, but if Nielsen ever rates it, Puerto Rico as a whole would rate #19 nationally overall, and #2 as a Latino market). I hope Dish Network is ready when it's time to negotiate all the channels they carry which are owned by InterMedia Partners, because WAPA America will be in that deal, linked with Cine Latino.

No one in the latino TV industry expected them to last anything over a year, and tomorrow they reach four years of hard work to bring programming to the second largest Latino group in America, but also was the most underserved Television wise. September 1, 2004 at 5am was the beginning of the worst nightmare to the major two, and it reminded them that you should never double cross WAPA TV. lol