A Special Latin Beat – WAPA

“For most local stations, the good old days when broadcast TV ruled the television landscape are just a distant memory. But in the late 1990s, Gary Chapman, chairman, president and CEO of LIN Television, discovered a market where the power of broadcast TV hasnt been diluted by the spread of cable or satellite: the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

“The market was in some ways reminiscent of U.S. television in the 1960s and 1970s,” Chapman recalls. The climate for broadcast-TV advertising was very strong. Cable and satellite penetration was low, its around 43% today, and most people got TV over the air. Three broadcasters””the local Univision and Telemundo stations and independent WAPA””split about 90% of the ad revenue.

Chapman liked those numbers so much that LIN Television snapped up WAPA from GE Capital for about $70 million in 1999.”

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