WorldLink Eyes Greater Hispanic Sales Growth

WorldLink, a Los Angeles-based media sales company that specializes in direct-response and infomercials, is banking on the burgeoning Hispanic market for additional future growth.

CEO Toni Erickson Knight, who formed WorldLink in 1997 after bolstering direct-response ad sales at Fox Sports Net in the eight prior years, said the company's Spanish business is "strong."

That segment is the firm's second-largest, behind direct-response and infomercials, she said. "We started with Fox Sports en Español in 1998 and now we're the largest independent rep company for Spanish business."

Late last month, WorldLink signed to represent La Familia Network and Destino X, Wide Angle Productions' travel and lifestyle series now airing in the U.S. on Latino TV and abroad on Telemundo Internacional. In July, La Familia was added to Cablevision Systems Corp.'s Spanish digital tier in the New York DMA.

All told, Knight said WorldLink represents more than 200 national, regional and international cable networks, as well as broadcast stations and syndicators.

Domestically, she added, her firm continues to handle Fox Sports Net and also represents such services as Fox Sports World, CNN en Español, Fuel, Tennis Channel, Techtv, Comcast Sports

Net and Rainbow Sports Networks, as well as DirecTV Para

Todos and broadcasters Young Broadcasting and Granite Broadcasting.

Breaking out WorldLink's business without divulging figures, Knight said that the bulk of its sales — "85% to 90%" — come mainly from U.S. cable. "DR and infomercials are the majority of our business," she added.

Her firm, which started out with four staff members, now employs 70 people in Los Angeles and New York, said Knight