ABC Ends Spanish-Language Service

ABC News has quietly shut down its “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” simultaneous Spanish-language translation service, saying it was too expensive given that there was little evidence many people were using it.

The translation service, available via a TV set’s Secondary Audio Program channel, was also provided on occasion for other ABC News programs, including special “Nightline” broadcasts and last year’s presidential election coverage.

It was costing the network more than $1 million annually, and “we had no evidence that it had wide appeal and no evidence that it increased the number of people watching the news,” said Paul Friedman, executive vice president of ABC News. He called the shutdown a “disappointment.”

The move comes as ABC News, like other television news operations, is under increasing budget pressures due to the weakening advertising marketplace and soaring costs to cover the war in Afghanistan.

“World News Tonight” was a pioneer in the Spanish market when it launched the service in October 2000, hoping to attract Latino viewers who preferred to watch the news in Spanish away from Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo.

Friedman said ABC decided on the shutdown, one of the few easily trimmed discretionary items in the “World News Tonight” budget, based only on “anecdotal” evidence that the service was little used. He noted that an examination of evening newscast ratings in markets with large Latino populations showed viewership “up sharply in a couple markets and down in a couple others.”

One ABC News executive said the network had received no complaints that he was aware of from viewers since the service was abandoned just before Thanksgiving.

ABC’s move comes as NBC is about to take control of Telemundo and NBC News is exploring ways to integrate its news operations with those of the Spanish-language network. Friedman said ABC News remained committed to covering stories of interest to the Latino community.

The translation was provided by a handful of freelance employees, so there will be no layoffs as a result of the shutdown.