Fox starts Spanish network

August 14, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES

A quarter-century ago, Fox figured there was room for more than just three big TV networks. It created Fox Broadcasting, which would redefine television with shows such as “Married ... With Children,” “The Simpsons,” “24” and “American Idol.”

Now, Fox is hoping to stage an encore.

Rupert Murdoch’s company on Monday unveiled MundoFox, a new Spanish-language broadcast network. A joint venture with Colombian powerhouse RCN Television Group, the network will challenge the Spanish-language media dominance of entrenched rivals Univision Communications and Telemundo.

Fox and RCN have chipped in an estimated $100 million to hire staff, develop programming and launch the service. The network and its national news team will be based in Los Angeles, unlike Univision and Telemundo, which both operate from Miami.

Fox is banking on the L.A. location to give MundoFox a competitive edge by absorbing the region’s Mexican-American culture. Two-thirds of Latinos in the U.S. are of Mexican heritage.

“The market has been too steady for too long,” said Hernan Lopez, chief executive of Fox International Channels. “The average Spanish-language channel looks very similar to the way it looked 15 to 20 years ago.”