Pappas Pulls Plug on Azteca America Deal

Pappas Telecasting terminated its affiliation agreements with Azteca America Tuesday.

The TV-station owner said affected stations and DMAs are: KAZH-TV (Houston); KTNC-TV (San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose and Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, Calif.); KAZR-CA (Reno, Nev.); KAZO-LP (Omaha, Neb.); and KAZJ-LP/KAZS-LP (Sioux City, Iowa).

Pappas-owned KAZA-TV (Los Angeles) -- Azteca America’s flagship station in the No. 1 Hispanic DMA in the United States, which is currently operated by Azteca America under a local marketing agreement -- was unaffected.

“Our company has affiliated various stations with the Azteca America Network during the course of the last six years,” Pappas chairman and CEO Harry J. Pappas said in a prepared statement.

“During that period, the Azteca America Network's programming has not developed and ratings have not grown as we had expected,” he added. “We are choosing amongst various other options for programming on these stations to begin July 1, 2007.”