Estrella Media launches 3 FAST channels on LG smart TVs

Spanish-language content distributor Estrella Media is expanding its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) presence, debuting today Cine EstrellaTV on LG Channels.

Cine EstrellaTV is a 24-hour FAST channel featuring curated Latin American movies. LG will also carry Estrella Media’s flagship EstrellaTV along with the 24-7 Estrella News channel.

Estrella Media has gradually gained exposure on smart TV systems. The company is a content partner on Roku’s Espacio Latino – a recently launched hub for Roku’s Spanish language programming. And Estrella Media last year launched EstrellaTV and Estrella News on Vizio’s SmartCast TVs.

René Santaella, Estrella Media’s chief digital and streaming officer, noted the LG partnership paves the way to boost Hispanic audience reach.

“The Hispanic audience over-indexes with smart TVs and streaming compared to other audience segments, and this partnership will grow Estrella Media’s overall footprint,” he said in a statement.

An increasing number of Spanish-speaking households are shifting towards streaming as the primary mode of consumption, according to recent data from Horowitz. The research found 38% of Latinx households – as of February 2022 – who subscribe only to streaming and not MVPDs.

The rise of Hispanic-focused streaming services continues to grow, particularly on the AVOD side. Nuestra.TV, which launched in May, offers content that appeals to the bilingual Hispanic cohort, which is comprised of about 80% of U.S. Hispanics.

Another Hispanic-focused AVOD service is Canela Media, which offers a variety of FAST channels through partners like Samsung and LG. Canela recently hired Pluto TV’s Shampa Banerjee as the company’s first chief product and technology officer.

YouTube is also aware of the appeal for Spanish-language content, debuting in May a YouTube TV add-on for Spanish-language content.

Aside from the Hispanic audience segment, U.S. viewers in general are gravitating towards ad-supported streaming services, according to Comscore’s latest State of Streaming analysis.

The preference for ads bleeds into connected TV viewership. A DeepIntent and LG Ads study indicated roughly over half of viewers find CTV ads more relevant than those found on linear TV. Meaning viewers are left with a more positive impression after watching an ad.

In other news with LG Ads, the company in June inked a deal with Magnite, allowing Magnite to tap into automated content recognition (ACR) data from opted-in LG smart TVs in the U.S.