Univision, HSN team on Spanish Shopping Network.

A freshly manicured host is holding her hand up to the camera, displaying a sapphire and cubic-zirconia ring. She tells the audience, in her warm Southern accent, that this piece of jewelry is a steal at $189.

Nothing extraordinary about this type of television retailing, except that starting early next year, the host will be speaking in Spanish.

Home Shopping Network and Century City-based Univision Communications are pairing up to form the Spanish Shopping Network, a television shopping channel aimed at the Latino market.

"Is it a good idea? Of course it is," said Alex Nogales, chairman of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, a Latino media watchdog group. "Fact of the matter is, the Latino consumer is one of the greatest consumers in the world ... we buy as if there was no tomorrow. They're going to do a lot of business."

Industry observers note that as the Latino population expands, so does its spending power. The U.S. Latino market has an estimated purchasing power of $350 billion.

"We're beginning to see a larger middle class that is more open to something like (a Spanish Shopping Network)," said Roy Jasso, chief executive for the Latino Business Association in Los Angeles.

The new network, which will begin broadcasting early next year on Galavision, Univision's domestic cable channel, will debut as a three-hour-a-day programming block in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and San Antonio. Other U.S. markets have not yet been determined; the network will also eventually be distributed in Latin America and Spain.

Galavision, which broadcasts some programming in English and some in Spanish, has an estimated 8.1 million cable subscribers. The new network expects to attract some, if not all, of Galavision's 2.5 million Spanish-speaking households.

Eventually, HSN and Univision hope to create a stand-alone Spanish-language home shopping channel independent from Galavision, much like HSN's English-language network.

Although analysts agree there's a market for the Spanish-language shopping program, some question whether HSN and Univision will ever convince enough cable operators to carry an independent shopping network.

While Galavision is one of the fastest-growing Spanish-language cable networks, it and other Spanish-language channels continue to fight an uphill battle to gain carriage, say some industry followers.

"I'm suspecting the cable penetration isn't going to be high enough," said Octavio E. Nuiry, president of On Marketing, a Latino advertising agency in Long Beach. "The problem is, cable carriers don't want to carry Spanish programming. That's the tricky part here, getting the distribution."

Nuiry points to NBC's decision to shut down Canal de Noticias, its Spanish-language cable news network, earlier this year.

"One of the big problems was with distribution," said Nuiry, who worked on the ad campaign for the failed network. "It's like a Catch-22 - if you can't get on the air, you can't get the advertising dollars ... so it doesn't make any money."

In September, Cox Communications Inc.'s San Diego division dropped a 24-hour Spanish-language sports network, drawing heat from local Latino leaders who alleged that the Latino market is not properly served.

Cox executives pointed to low viewership as the reason they dropped the channel.

Latino media observers note that only in the past five years have retailers and advertisers taken the Latino market seriously. And convincing cable carriers to offer a slot for a Spanish shopping channel is likely to prove difficult.

"We still have a serious problem in cable distribution in that most systems ... have a restricted channel capacity," said Felix Gutierrez, president of the Freedom Forum Pacific Coast Center, a journalism foundation.

Though no Univision executives were available to comment on carriage issues, Gerry Hoeppner, a spokesman for Home Shopping, said, "Univision is the largest domestic cable operator in Spanish. They clearly they have expertise in distribution."

Home Shopping Network will own 50.1 percent of the new entity and will manage and produce the network at its St. Petersburg, Fla. facilities. Univision will own 49.9 percent and manage U.S. distribution.

The companies would not say how much they plan to invest in the venture.

Hoeppner said HSN is pulling together an army of Spanish- and English-speaking hosts, salespeople and production staff to get the new Spanish network off the ground.

The network's product mix will likely differ from its English-language counterpart, said Hoeppner, in areas like music, food and art. Latin music and cooking will likely take the place of English tunes and American-style food products. Meanwhile, old retail standbys like jewelry and cosmetics will remain pretty similar.

HSN plans to custom-tailor the network to the Latino consumer by bringing in Latino celebrities to pitch their signature lines of personal-care products, cosmetics and jewelry.

"The consumer can't smell or touch the product so it needs to be presented by a host, or celebrity guest, who the Spanish consumer trusts is knowledgeable," said Hoeppner.

Nuiry, who has been involved in Latino advertising for nearly two decades, said network managers face one other challenge in addition to finding cable operators to carry the channel: showing Latino consumers - a large portion of whom don't own credit cards - how to shop over the telephone.