TLN en Español, Canada's first nationally available 24-hour all-Spanish channel, has launched on Shaw Digital TV, in the Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg markets.
TLN en Español offers exclusive top programming from the Latin world, including daily news from pan regional news and information leader CNN en Español featuring Cuban-Canadian international correspondent Ismael Cala (a longtime host on TLN), alongside acclaimed movies, soap operas, talk shows, live music specials, and top soccer coverage including the FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 and 2014, as well as UEFA Europa league coverage, programmers describe.
With the addition of TLN en Español, subscribers of Shaw Digital TV now enjoy the flexibility of tuning in to their favourite Spanish programming 24 hours a day, complementing TLN Telelatino's existing trilingual Spanish, Italian and English channel.
"Expanding the carriage of TLN en Español to include Shaw Digital TV's key Western Canadian markets helps fulfill Telelatino Network's strategy to reach all of our fast growing Hispanic Canadian communities with an all-Spanish Canadian friendly channel," TLN President, Aldo Di Felice, stated in an e-mail to Mediacaster Magazine. "TLN has built an unrivalled expertise in and understanding of Hispanic Canadian community issues and television programming preferences. Through locally sensitive program selection and scheduling, Canadian-based staff and community production commitments, TLN en Español is the only all-Spanish channel that reflects Canadian values and interests. It is a valuable tool for keeping new generations connected with their roots while also making newcomers feel at home in Canada."
Bell TV and Shaw Digital TV now carry the specialty service.
According to PMB, there are over one million Hispanics in Canada, and about 25 per cent (286,000) are in Western Canada, according to a 2008 weighted by population study.
It also showed a city by city breakdown of Hispanic speakers in western Canada: Calgary 52,000; Edmonton, 33,000; Vancouver, 122,000; Winnipeg 9,000
From 2001 to 2006, the Spanish language grew by 24% in Canada, national census figures show, with an ever greater increase over a longer time-period: between 1996 and 2006 Spanish immigration to Canada grew by 271%.