Hispanic Television Network (HTVN)

Hispanic Television Network went public in December 1999 through a reverse merger. Hispano Television Ventures combined with American Independent Network, a Fort Worth company that ran an English-language, family-oriented network. The new company's plan was to build a Spanish-language network for Mexican-American viewers, who made up about 65 percent of U.S. Hispanics, and to challenge Univision's hold on that audience. CEO Marco Camacho told Broadcasting & Cable in July 2000 that the company would offer all-Mexican programming, including movies, talk shows and game shows, some produced in-house.

HTVN started by buying clusters of low-power stations and combining them to cover a market. Of its 17 stations in mid-2000, only two were full power. That June it offered $35 million for KLDT-TV, which served the Dallas-Fort Worth market, as a step toward full-power stations in the top 20 Hispanic markets. Camacho also described the cleanup the new management faced: the company had restated its 1998 financial statements, changed accountants and filed its 1999 annual report late.

By the time of its 2000 annual report, the company was running two networks: Television Hispana (HTVN) and the English-language AIN, which fed more than 35 affiliates. HTVN owned, operated or had agreements with 22 stations in 19 markets. It owned a 40,000-square-foot headquarters at 6125 Airport Freeway in Fort Worth, with a satellite earth station and a production studio under construction. It had also bought Televideo, Inc., a San Antonio production company based in the 110 Broadway building. Televideo had made programs and music videos since 1990 for clients including Telemundo, Univision and Sony Discos, and was producing the HTVN originals Luz, Camara Musica and Entre Tu y Yo.

The numbers did not hold. The company reported revenue of $620,955 in 2000 against a net loss of $38.5 million, and it had 44 full-time employees in April 2001. On July 24, 2002, HTVN filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth, under a plan to reorganize with BroadcastLinks, Inc. that would cancel all of its existing stock.

In March 2003, Multichannel News reported that Firestone Communications had taken over HTVN's cable agreements from its principal creditors, along with its U.S. technical facilities and production studios. Firestone used them to launch Sorpresa!, a Spanish-language children's channel, on 350 cable systems, and hired former HTVN official Luis Estrada to run programming. HTVN filed to deregister its stock in July 2003.