DirecTV Launching Spanish Service

DirecTV, a unit of El Segundo-based Hughes Electronics Corp., will launch its Spanish-language satellite television service Monday in Southern California and six other Latino markets in a push to deliver dozens of channels to the nation’s Latino households.

DirecTV Para Todos, or DirecTV for Everyone, was rolled out in October in Miami, Houston and the San Jose-San Francisco area. In addition to the Los Angeles area, Monday’s launch includes Dallas, El Paso, Fresno, Phoenix, Sacramento and San Diego. The digital service is expected to be available nationwide by March.

It offers up to 32 Spanish-language national and international channels, as well as access to 210 selected English-language channels. DirecTV this week also announced a preliminary agreement to add PUMA TV--a Venezuela-based network focusing on music entertainment and fashion--to the programming lineup.

The system offers a greater selection of Spanish-language programming than what is generally available through cable operators and targets bilingual households. It will be available through selected retailers here, including La Curacao and Dearden’s, DirecTV announced.

The service features on-screen menu options in Spanish, a bilingual call center and parental lock-out system that DirecTV says should appeal to Latino families.

Hughes announced this week it will sell its Space & Communications unit to Boeing Co., making DirecTV and broadband services its core business. DirecTV added 1.8 million subscribers in 1999, bringing its total to 8 million.