Fox Sports en Español 2003-2004 Upfront.

Highlighting Fox Sports en Español’s advertising upfront presentation here Tuesday, network General Manager David Sternberg announced that program development and product immersion would play a pivotal role in the channel’s continued strong growth in broadcast year 2004. Fox Sports en Español will unveil two new original shows in the coming season: Los Premios Fox Sports, a year-end awards show recognizing the achievements of prominent Latino athletes; and Diario Fox Sports, a nightly sports news program originating from the network’s studios in Mexico. In addition, the network will be offering advertisers unique and creative new opportunities to connect their brands to Hispanic consumers through in-program product placement, virtual advertising insertion and retail-based consumer promotions.

The first and only 24-hour Spanish-language sports channel in the United States since 1996, Fox Sports en Español has achieved tremendous ratings success through its exclusive telecasts of distinguished sports competitions like the Copa Toyota Libertadores, Copa Pre-Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, and the Major League Baseball Playoffs and World Series. The network’s expanded offerings for 2004 include 20 live events from the Champ Car World Series, a popular auto racing series with a strong allegiance among Mexican-Americans; the ChampionsWorld Series tour, a new U.S. soccer tournament featuring top-level club teams from England, Spain, Italy and Mexico; and a season-long schedule of weekly matches from Major League Soccer, including the playoffs.

“We have no intention of resting on our laurels during the new broadcast year,” said Sternberg. “We will continue broadcasting premium sports programming while maintaining our world-class production standards, and concurrently investigate new program acquisition opportunities as they arise.”

To further capitalize on its rich portfolio of sports content and growing advertiser base, Fox Sports en Español-currently available in over 5.2 million U.S. households-will offer enhanced program entitlements and product immersion to its advertisers. As part of an agreement with Princeton Video Image, Fox Sports en Español will in 2004 bring in-event virtual signage to the U.S. Spanish-language television marketplace for the first time.

“Combining product integration and immersion, virtual signage and our online partnership with Terra.com, enables us to enhance our clients’ media investment by integrating their brand across multiple platforms,” stated Tom Maney, Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales for Fox Sports en Español.

Special guests in attendance at the upfront included Celinés Toribio, host of Major League Baseball’s “Sabor a Béisbol” magazine program, and Mexico’s Carlos Contreras, the first Hispanic race car driver to compete in the NASCAR Busch Series.