RTVE launches Star HD, its new thematic channel for America

It will offer fiction series and entertainment programs in high definition. After a testing period that begins now, its final launch is scheduled for the first half of 2016.

Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the launch of the TVE Internacional channel, RTVE has just presented its new thematic channel in high definition, Star HD. Aimed at the American public, its schedule is made up of entertainment programs and fiction series that have achieved national and international success.

At the presentation of the new international thematic channel at the FesTVal in Vitoria, TVE's Director of Strategy and Image, Mª José Bultó, explained that Star HD "will complement TVE Internacional and Canal 24 Horas. While TVE Internacional is generalist, this will be thematic, for all of America, and focused on entertainment and fiction." “We wanted to strengthen our leadership in the international arena and expand the Spain brand.”

For Mª Jesús Pérez, deputy director of International Sales at TVE, “it is about selling emotion, about sharing with the American audience what we do in Spain with our series and programs.” He estimates that the channel's potential audience will be more than 400 million people.

Star HD's test broadcast began during the month of August, with an eight-hour loop of programming. In this period, the broadcast of the new RTVE channel is carried out via free-to-air satellite. From the final date of its launch, in the first half of 2016, the signal will be encoded in the same way as the TVE and 24-hour channels, and distributed through the different American pay television operators.

Star HD's programming will include the series that have obtained the best audience results in Spain, as well as awards in various international competitions. The entertainment programs will also seek, to a certain extent, to provide a vision of Spain and its cultural diversity.