Estrella Media Taps FreeWheel to Accelerate Growth of Connected TV Advertising for Its Spanish Language Digital Channels

FreeWheel to help Estrella Drive Value and Monetization for its Valuable connected TV Hispanic audience

Estrella Media, the transformative Spanish-language media company serving a diverse multiplatform Hispanic audience in the US, today announced that it has partnered with FreeWheel, a global technology platform for the TV advertising industry, to expand its connected TV (CTV) advertising business. The partnership will enable both companies to elevate and support the enormous growth of Hispanic CTV across the valuable Estrella Media platforms thru EstrellaTV, Estrella News, Cine EstrellaTV, Estrella Games and the EstrellaTV App. Estrella drove over 1.33 billion streaming minutes of its original content in November with a third of it on CTV, including the hit reality series Rica Famosa Latina, the venerated Premios de la Radio Regional Mexican music awards, the scripted Latin comedy Norteados con Don Cheto and five daily news shows on Estrella News including 24 Horas.

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While more and more households across the US consume CTV, there has also been a critical consumption shift within Hispanic households. According to Nielsen research, Hispanic households over-index on CTV consumption compared to the average US household. Per Horowitz Research, seven in 10 Hispanic TV content viewers watch Spanish-language programming, up 11% from last year. Furthermore, the share of Hispanic TV content viewers who rely only on streaming has continued its upward trajectory: 38% of Hispanic only subscribe to streaming services and not to an MVPD.

Today, Estrella is one of the largest US producers of Spanish-language video and audio content for multiplatform distribution worldwide, with a library of over 20,000 hours of original video content. By leveraging FreeWheel’s advanced technology, the media company is on track to accelerate its growth into the valuable CTV space across FAST and AVOD.

"Our passionate audience is watching more CTV than ever before,” said René Santaella, Chief Digital & Streaming Officer. "We need to make sure they get an excellent free ad-supported experience surrounding the content they love. FreeWheel is helping our ad sales operation achieve better ROI on CTV so everyone wins.”

FreeWheel will power Estrella’s comprehensive revenue strategy for direct and programmatic monetization to reach Hispanic audiences, including all CTV and OTT inventory.

"As audiences fragment across screens, programmers and advertisers need solutions that can help them find and scale this viewership across CTV," said Katy Loria, Chief Revenue Officer at FreeWheel. "Estrella is seeing significant growth with the important US Hispanic market across its CTV audiences. We're thrilled to be a key partner to help the company drive and monetize this business.”

About Estrella Media, Inc.

Estrella Media is a leading Spanish-language media company and one of the largest US producers of Spanish-language video and audio content for multiplatform distribution worldwide, with over 20,000 hours of original video content.

Estrella Media's content studio feeds all its digital and linear media platforms, including EstrellaTV, its national broadcast television network that is seen in over 60 million US households on 16 owned or operated stations and 33 affiliated stations, as well as through cable and satellite providers and digital streaming platforms; Estrella News, the first 24/7 Spanish-language multiplatform digital news network in the US; and Estrella Games, the first 24/7 curated Spanish-language game show channel in the US In 2021, Estrella Media's digital content surpassed one billion viewership minutes.

Estrella Media also owns and operates 14 radio stations and the Don Cheto Radio Network, airing on 33 affiliated stations throughout the US, featuring one of the nation's most popular radio talents, Don Cheto. Estrella Media also produces large-scale music festivals, concerts, and special events throughout the US.

To learn more about Estrella Media and company updates, please visit Estrella Media at estrellamedia.com, and follow us on Twitter @Estrellamedia_, Facebook @Estrellamediainc, and LinkedIn @Estrella Media, Inc.

About FreeWheel

FreeWheel empowers all segments of The New TV Ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve its goals. We provide the technology, data enablement, and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels in order to ensure the ultimate goal – results for marketers. With offices in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Paris, Beijing and across the global, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information, please visit https://www.freewheel.com/ and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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