TORONTO – While its primary channel was a very popular destination for those wanting to watch some of the World Cup soccer games in Italian, for example, another arm of Telelatino was busily launching a pair of new specialties.
Released with little fanfare last month on Rogers Cable, the channels are EuroWorld Sport and Mediaset Italia (watch for the fanfare to come soon, however). Rogers also added TLN en Espanol to its line-up last month (which was already carried by Bell TV and Shaw).
“They are truly amazing channels,” said TLN president Aldo Di Felice.
EuroWorld Sport is a predominantly English language sports service focusing on international soccer matches and specials with exclusive rights to the UEFA Europa League clubs competition and the Ligue 1 French League, as well as multilingual rights to all FIFA World Cup competitions such as the Under 20 World Cup Columbia 2011, the Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 through to the next 2014 World Cup.
EWS programming goes deeper than games, however and “uniquely focuses on the deep bonds of shared sports fanaticism, how a beautiful pass, a missed kick, a lucky save, an unexpected victory, can create memories that last forever – and how friends and foes come together to share the moment of an important match, hoping with all their hearts that it will produce one of those special experiences that last a lifetime,” said De Felice.
Original Canadian shows include a relaunched and expanded version of TLN’s popular "Soccer Fanatics" roundtable for fall 2010.
Mediaset Italia is TLN’s new 100% Italian spin off of TLN, built in collaboration with Italian media group Mediaset. The channel offers the best of Mediaset’s key prime time Mediaset programs and all the best of its general entertainment, fiction, fun, news, and soft news coming from the three mainstream free-to-air television channels: Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4.
The channel includes 15% Canadian programming focusing on the needs and interests of Canada’s 1.5 million strong population of Italian origins, says Di Felice.
TLN en Español is a "Latino Superchannel" offering exclusive top programming from the Latin world, including daily news, telenovelas, movies, talk and variety shows plus big live music specials and top soccer coverage. The channel includes 15% Canadian programming focusing on the needs and interests of Canada’s over 1 million Spanish language speakers, says Di Felice.
All three channels are in free preview now on Rogers.
