Azteca finds L.A.'s Hispanic market not a sure thing.

You might think a Mexican television station could easily get traction in L.A., where about 70 percent of the Latino population is of Mexican heritage.

But Azteca 54 KAZA TV Los Angeles is learning that it takes more than shared roots to win a share of the Hispanic audience.

Although Azteca 54 has made impressive strides, more than doubling its advertising revenues and increasing its share of viewers, the Glendale-based affiliate of Azteca America still has only garnered a fraction of the audience share that its Hispanic television rivals command.

"It's not going to be an overnight thing," said Tony Aguilar, media director at Acento, an L.A.-based Hispanic advertising agency with clients such as Albertsons and 21st Century Insurance. "It looks like they're doing the right thing, but it's taking a longer period of time than we all thought to see some results."

Mexico City-based TV Azteca S.A. de C.V., one of the largest producers of Spanish language television programming, first entered the U.S. market three years ago when the company struck a deal with Pappas Telecasting Companies under which Pappas would provide television stations in key Hispanic markets and TV Azteca, through its Azteca America division, would provide programming.

The companies figured that Azteca's powerful content library would fit naturally into a number of U.S. markets where the Hispanic population was heavily weighted toward Mexican immigrants. And the idea was so formidable that shares in Univision Communications Inc., the leading Hispanic media company in the U.S., plummeted on news of Azteca's entry.

But some of the Mexican programming met with less than enthusiastic response in America, the alliance with Pappas soon soured, lawsuits were filed, and last July, Azteca won operating control of the network as part of a new local marketing agreement with Pappas, which continues to hold the broadcasting licenses on the station.

Getting more local

Azteca installed Eduardo Urbiola, a 16-year media veteran who during an eight-year stint at TV Azteca successfully built a strong base of local advertisers in the company's Mexican markets, as CEO of Azteca 54 KAZA TV, and Urbiola went to work to apply his local marketing expertise to the Los Angeles marketplace.

"We've had to work to change the image of Azteca 54 from what it was without any local programming and establish local programming," said Urbiola.

The first order of business was creating a local news show. Although Mexican-Americans continue to harbor an interest in the events of their homeland, that news had to be tailored to their new lifestyles and culture in the U.S.

KAZA built production offices, recruited local on-air talent, and last year launched two news programs under the "Hechos 54" moniker at 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.

The 10 p.m. news show, which launched last October, achieved an average rating of 1 for the month of March, an 88 percent increase over the station's rating in December, 2003, according to NHSI, the Nielsen Media Research division that measures Hispanic, Spanish-language programming.

But KAZA is up against two Hispanic media giants, Univision, which operates KMEX Channel 34 and Telemundo which operates KVEA-TV, Channel 52, which in February, logged a 5.7 share and a 8.4 share of the 10 p.m. viewing audience respectively.

"The truth is they're not promoting their news," said Ingrid Iannotti, senior vice president and media director at Anita Santiago Advertising Inc., a Santa Monica-based agency that handles the Hispanic accounts for such clients as Wells Fargo and the California Milk Processor Board. "Nobody really knows they have local news."

Urbiola concedes that the station has fallen short in the promotional arena until now, but he adds that is changing.

KAZA has begun a fund-raising promotion, matching viewer contributions for a young girl in need of an eye operation and holding other events that will include personal appearances by its on-air personalities.

"When we first arrived here there were a lot of priorities," said Urbiola, "so we prioritized investing in local programming, news programming and local talent. We invested a little in promotion and hoped that would help, but we had to focus on equipment, local programming and staff."

KAZA last month launched another local show, "Detras de la Academia con Laura Caro," which tells behind-the-scenes stories of one of its popular network programs, a talent show a la "American Idol" called "La Academia."

The station, which has added two-and-a-half hours of local programming since Urbiola arrived, is on track to add another hour of locally produced shows in the next six months including Detras de la Academia, which is hosted by a young entertainer from Tijuana who was previously featured in the Academia program.

Novelas Planned

This summer, the station will launch two new network novelas. Although made in Mexico, Urbiola expects them to gain wide acceptance in the local market.

"Our novelas compete directly in Mexico, so we're going to stick with the successful strategy," Urbiola said.

Finally, Urbiola said KAZA's strong sports programming should also help to gain wider acceptance for the station. The station, through its network parent, has exclusive rights to nine out of the 20 professional Mexican soccer teams, more than 50 percent of the soccer inventory.

"Mexican soccer is the most important professional soccer league," said Urbiola, "and we're trying to leverage our domination in sports to other programs like news."

With those elements in place, Urbiola said he expects the station, which captured about a 4 percent sham of the total market last year, to reach an 8 percent share this year.

KAZA's staffing, about 20 when Urbiola took over, has grown to about 100 employees, and the company is set to move into larger facilities to accommodate its workforce and production studio.

The new space has been occupied by Telemundo, a move Urbiola considers a harbinger of things to come.

"We're going to be physically where they were at, and we expect to be at a place they were at in ratings and sham," Urbiola said.