Noticiero de las Seis

Look for Azteca America to announce that it is adding two home-grown national news programs starting today. The shows-two newscasts and a "current-events news/talk" half-hour-will be produced out of Washington, D.C., and replace the news imported from TV Azteca’s two Mexican TV channels. There are also plans for a "current events news/talk" half-hour, Polemica y Debate, but it's debut has been postponed.

For now, Azteca America’s 29 stations will get an hour newscast at 6 p.m. ET and a half-hour at 10:30-11 p.m. When Polemica debuts, it is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. The 6 p.m. news and Polemica will be hosted by veteran journalist Armando Guzman, onetime Washington correspondent for Univision, and a team of reporters yet to be named.

The shows will feature a majority of U.S. news, but will also include reports from Mexico and Central and South America courtesy of a team of TV Azteca reporters.

The U.S.-targeted Spanish-language net from Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca is looking to take some viewers away from dominant players Telemundo and Univision, both of which also have national news.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.