The end of Azteca América’s broadcasts in the U.S. has impacted its affiliates. Among them, Rio Grande station KRGV.
Despite the shutdown, the station didn’t pull the plug on its local newscasts. Instead, it sought a way to keep them going.
The station partnered with a telenovela network called Novelísima to air their programming and decided to expand its Spanish newscasts from 30-minute shows to one hour or two hours.
“KRGV has a strong legacy of being the most watched and most trusted news station in the Rio Grande Valley. So we feel this was actually an opportunity to grow our Spanish news presence on our digital channel 5.2 and expand our news footprint in the market,” Zoltan Csanyi-Salcedo tells Media Moves. “We are hiring more staff and expanding our newscasts. Our new partnership with Novelisima will also give us more opportunities for continued growth in news content.”
After becoming a Novelísima affiliate, starting January 1, the station has adjusted its news schedules as follows:
Saturday and Sunday: newscasts move from 5-6pm to 4-5pm and from 10-10:30 pm to 9-10 pm.
Monday-Friday: morning news continues from 7-8 am, noon newscast continues from 12-1 pm; Afternoon and evening newscasts fall back an hour from 5 pm to 4 pm and 10 pm to 9 pm, with both expanding to 1 hr.