El Rey shutting down

[TMC]

Has been carried on Comcast. Apparently already removed from Charter and AT&T.

https://www.cablefax.com/programming...at-end-of-year

Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’s English-language, Latino-infused cable network El Rey will cease operations on Dec 31.

The news comes after Univision announced last month that it had exited its minority position in the network and production studio created by Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures. El Rey has steadily lost linear distribution over the past year, with AT&T dropping the channel in January and Charter removing it in September. Its carriage dropped from about 33mln homes in November 2019 to around 13mln as of last month, according to Nielsen data.

It sounds like this may not be the end of El Rey though. When Univision announced it was cutting ties, Rodriguez said the company was excited about its next phase under new ownership, and FactoryMade CEO John Fogelman said he was excited to see what the company will achieve in its next chapter. No word on what the next iteration may be, but it seems quite possible for El Rey pivot to the streaming space. That seems especially promising given Rodriguez’s success on the streamers, including directing last week’s episode of Disney+’s “The Mandalorian” and Netflix moving the release of his “We Can Be Heroes” (sequel to “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl”) up to Dec 25 from Jan 1.

El Rey was one of the first minority-supported channels Comcast launched as a condition of its 2011 merger with NBCUniversal. The others were REVOLT, Aspire and BabyFirst Americas. The idea was that a carriage agreement with Comcast would give the independent networks a distribution shot in the arm. Some of those programmers have complained that the relationship didn’t expand over the years.

Rodriguez told Cablefax last year that El Rey was grateful for the opportunity Comcast gave it as its first distributor, but since then, other MVPDs outmatched Comcast in support. REVOLT founder Sean Combs had lobbed similar complaints in a statement about Byron Allen’s racial discrimination suit against Comcast. But there seems to be some winds of change blowing at Comcast. Not only did it settle the litigation with Allen by agreeing to launch several of his channels, but it struck a new pact with REVOLT that expanded the net into new markets and moved it to the Digital Starter package in HD.

El Rey launched in December 2013, with Rodriguez describing it as a mainstream network that Hispanics could go to and say, “Wow. I’m the hero of the show. I’m the director. I’m the writer. I’m the producer.” His goal was not to be another Univision or Telemundo. After four years as El Rey’s president and gm, Daniel Tibbets stepped down in February to pursue some new business development opportunities, but stayed on as a consultant to produce 120 hours of original content this past summer and help with the overall business direction. El Rey features a range of feature films and TV series, including “Lucha Underground” (pro wrestling) and geek fandom show “El Rey Nation.”

“When El Rey was first launched by Robert Rodriguez, he did it in conjunction with the biggest and most prominent Latino civil rights organizations and Latino elected officials at the national level… They had all been part of the fight to get more Latino networks on the air,” said Maria Cardona, a political strategist who hosts El Rey’s political talker “Maria.” “When Robert created El Rey, he wanted it to be a foundation where Latinos stories were being told, the kind of Latino stories that had not found a voice on national television up until that point. The kind of Latino stories that were never front and center, but that the biggest and fastest growing community in the United States, was living every day.”

[Hawkee]

I think I remember El Rey very well because my mom used to watch reruns of the judge show Texas Justice on there and I thought that it was a clever channel. For a channel with a name that translates to "the king" in English i'm surprised that El Rey is shutting down because it was a unique channel and it got a lot of appeal for it's audience but maybe money is the true factor of El Rey going bankrupt and they couldn't keep up with the times. Maybe if they come up with some more ways to attract an audience El Rey can be saved
Bestie

[tenter]

I have xfinity and still have El Rey, but nothing the channel was the same.

Back in mid 2010s there were good stuff that aired before Miami Vice, Knight Rider, Airwolf, A-Team, etc.... although it's not surprising it's shutting down on other cable providers

[stevea]

Originally Posted by tenter

I have xfinity and still have El Rey, but nothing the channel was the same.

Back in mid 2010s there were good stuff that aired before Miami Vice, Knight Rider, Airwolf, A-Team, etc.... although it's not surprising it's shutting down on other cable providers

OP's post says it shuts down 12/31.

[MikeLutton]

they carried Incredible Hulk to i use to like that channell

[MA]

Xfinity On Demand here has some content from El Rey, but we never had the channel.