V-me: Difference between revisions

| name = V-meVme TV

| website = {{urlURL|www.vmetv.com}}

'''V-me''' ({{IPA-|es|ˈbeme}}, a pun on ''veme'', "watch me" or "see me") is a [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Hispanic-Latino American]] Spanish-language [[television network]], formerlycurrently carried as an over-the-air public broadcasting network in association with [[public television]] stations. V-me airs dramaa variety of programs, including comedy, music, science and technology, sports, soap operas, entertainment, juvenile, news and current affairs, food, reality shows, talk shows, lifestyle, nature, showbiz, magazines and educational preschoolpre-school content.

The 24-hour digital broadcast service was launched on March 5, 2007, with a stated mission to entertain, educate and inspire families in Spanish with a contemporary mix of original productions, exclusive premieres, acquisitions, and popular public television programs from [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] and [[American Public Television]], specially adapted for [[American Latinos]].<ref name="Current_Everhart">{{cite web|last=Everhart|first=Karen| url=http://www.current.org/dtv/dtv0702choices.shtml |title=Multicast channels crowd bitstream: V-me, in Spanish, joins options for stations' DTV broadcasts| work=[[Current (newspaper)|Current]] |date=February 12, 2007 |access-date=July 18, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110211120116/https://current.org/dtv/dtv0702choices.shtml |archive-date=February 11, 2011}}

The first venture of the media production and distribution company V-me Television Media Inc., it is a [[public-private partnership]] between [[WNET]], a [[non-commercial educational]] public television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and the investment firm [[Mario Baeza|Baeza Group]], the venture capital firm Syncom Funds, and [[PRISA|Grupo PRISA]] from Spain, one of the world's largest Spanish and Portuguese-language media companies.<ref>{{cite news|first=Elizabeth|last=Jensen|url=http://www.vmetv.com/_files/_press_pdf/NY_Times.pdf|title=Public Television Plans A Network for Latinos|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=February 7, 2007|access-date=December 14, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724120002/http://www.vmetv.com/_files/_press_pdf/NY_Times.pdf|archive-date=July 24, 2011}}<!-- note to editors: the "Educational Broadcasting Corporation" referred to in this source is now named WNET.org, the owner of WNET --></ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.current.org/2012/04/pubtv-multicaster-v-me-faulted-for-airing-ordinary-commercials/|title=PubTV multicaster V-me faulted for airing 'ordinary commercials'|work=[[Current (newspaper)|Current]]|first=Dru|last=Sefton|date=April 23, 2012|access-date=December 14, 2012}}</ref> WNET is a minority partner in the for-profit venture.<ref name="Current_Everhart" />

In December 2016, PBSthe network announced thatit would move V-me wouldoff endPBS itsmember operationsstations and create V-me's own [[public television]] stations in 2017, following the expiration of the network's 10now 24-year contracts with many of these stations, and transition exclusively to being broadcast on ten20 over-the-air affiliates and as a cable and satellite channel. Most of V-me's over-the-air PBS affiliates were dropped by March 31, 2017, and started to make its own public television affiliates; many of these affiliates had already chosen to replace V-me withso it can have its own public TV stations and add a 24-hour [[PBS Kids]] channel, which launched on January 16, 2017.<ref name="current-vmeotaend">{{cite news|last1=Sefton|first1=Dru|title=Spanish-language multicaster Vme will soon drop public TV service|url=http://current.org/2016/12/spanish-language-multicaster-vme-will-soon-drop-public-tv-service/|access-date=December 31, 2016|work=[[Current (newspaper)|Current]]|date=December 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229195801/https://current.org/2016/12/spanish-language-multicaster-vme-will-soon-drop-public-tv-service/|archive-date=December 29, 2018}}</ref> V-me is still part of the Public Broadcasting Service and its own company but with its own public television stations.

The network has since pursued expanded cable carriage, along with distribution on [[AT&T U-verse]], [[Dish Network]] and [[DirecTV]] and their associated streaming services, and the network was added nationwide at the start of October 2022 on [[Spectrum (brand)|Spectrum]] systems.<ref>{{cite press release|title=Vme TV Expands Its Distribution With Charter|publisher=Vme Media, Inc.|date=27 September 2022|url=https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2022/09/27/2523250/33861/en/Vme-TV-Expands-Its-Distribution-With-Charter.html|access-date=23 December 2022}}</ref>