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Media Heavyweight Working on New Cable News Channel

Feb 7, 2012  •  Post A Comment

A new cable news channel is in the works and is the topic of advanced discussions taking place involving media heavyweight The Walt Disney Co. and Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, The New York Times’ Media Decoder blog reports. The channel would be English-language, targeting English-speaking Hispanics in the U.S.

The news channel would seek to compete directly with established cable news outlets such as CNN and Fox News, the piece says.

For Disney, the partnership would allow it to reduce some of the costs related to its ABC News division, while sharing in subscriber fees from an additional network, according to the article.

Disney, which owns cable networks including ESPN and ABC Family, would help the partnership gain carriage agreements from cable and satellite companies, the story notes.

The story adds: “ABC News has halfheartedly tried creating its own cable news channel more than once before, but this new effort comes at a time when the news division, under Ben Sherwood, who became its president about a year ago, seems eager to strike deals. Last summer, ABC announced a Web partnership with Yahoo.”

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