Enlace is a

Latin American Latin Americans (; ) are the citizenship, citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their Latin American diaspora, diasporas are Metroethnicity, ...

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

-based

broadcast Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

. The network primarily broadcasts faith-based programming targeted to the

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

community. Enlace's primary headquarters are in

San José, Costa Rica San José (; meaning "Saint Joseph") is the capital city, capital and largest city of Costa Rica, and the capital of San José Province. It is in the center of the country, in the mid-west of the Costa Rican Central Valley, Central Valley, wi ...

, with studios, offices, and call centers in most Latin American countries. In the United States, Enlace is distributed by the

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN; legally Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN solicits donations on its Web site, a ...

(as Enlace TBN) and the broadcast facilities for Enlace's US feed are located in

Irving, Texas Irving is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and is an Inner suburb, inner city suburb of Dallas. Irving is noted for its #Demographics, racial and ethnic diver ...

. TBN stopped distributing Enlace on February 12, 2024 to pay-TV providers and many of its stations to accommodate

Phil McGraw Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), also known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author who is best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased ...

's new joint venture network

Merit Street Merit TV (also branded as Dr. Phil's Merit TV) is an American digital multicast television network and streaming service owned by Merit Street Media, a Fort Worth, Texas-based company founded by Phil McGraw. The channel primarily carries news dis ...

, but readded it in several markets with a large Hispanic population due to feedback against the removal of the channel. Around the world, the channel is broadcast free-to-air via satellite as well on

digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV, DTT, or DTTB) is a technology for terrestrial television, in which television stations broadcast television content in a digital signal, digital format. Digital terrestrial television is a major technologica ...

in Peru, Costa Rica, Spain, Panama, and Bolivia.

History

Jonas González Rodriguez Jonas may refer to: Geography * Jonas, Netherlands, Netherlands * Jonas, Pennsylvania, United States * Jonas Ridge, North Carolina, United States Arts, entertainment, and media * Jonas Brothers, American pop rock band. ** ''Jonas'' (TV serie ...

first got the idea for Enlace in 1981, and in 1984 Rodriguez sent a letter to Costa Rica's National Radio Control Department. On July 17, 1986, he was awarded a television license under Number 167 for use of the channel 23 UHF frequency in the Metropolitan region of Costa Rica. In 1987, Rodriguez established an office for Enlace in

San Antonio, TX San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the U ...

in the

Continental Building The Continental Building, formerly Braly Block, is a 151 ft (46 m), 13- story high-rise residential building on Spring Street in the Historic Core of Los Angeles. The Continental Building is part of the Spring Street Financial District w ...

. In August 1988, TBN founder

Paul Crouch Paul Franklin Crouch (; March 30, 1934 – November 30, 2013) was an American televangelist. Crouch and his wife, Jan, founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in 1973; the company has been described as "the world’s largest religious ...

donated a 10-watt transmitter to Channel 23, and engineer

Ricardo Jarquín Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname. People Given name * Ricardo de Araújo Pereira (born 1 ...

installed it. Channel 23 began transmitting on September 9, 1988. In January 1990 they installed a transmitter with 1000 watts in the Irazú volcano. In 1991 a trademark was filed for the name Enlace. In 1992, Channel 23 installed three repeaters in

Limón Limón (), also known as Puerto Limón, is the capital city of both the province and canton of the same name. One of Costa Rica's seven "middle cities" (i.e., main cities outside of San José's Greater Metropolitan Area), Limón has a populat ...

, Santa Elena and

Cerro de la Muerte Cerro de la Muerte is a mountain peak of a massif in Costa Rica, it is located within the Tapantí — Cerro de la Muerte Massif National Park, and is the highest point on the Pan-American Highway. Toponymy Its name means "Mountain of Death", ...

. In 1994, Channel 23 opened its first studio, and on August 2 of that year, Channel 23 began transmitting via satellite during TBN's flagship program '' Praise the Lord.'' In 1996 Enlace launched a 24/7 broadcast on the Mexican satellite Soldaridad 2, thus extending their signal all over Latin America. In 1998 they upgraded their satellite to Pas-5, thereby extending the network's reach all over Europe. In 2000 they upgraded their satellite once again to Pas-9, also on that year Enlace Juvenil TV was launched. On September 1, 2002, TBN Enlace USA was launched as part of TBN's digital lineup; the network planned to start covering the 10 top Hispanic markets of the country in its first year. In 2003, Enlace started transmitting on the satellites Hispasat-1C and

Hotbird 6 Hot Bird (also styled Hotbird) is a group of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13 °E over the equator ( orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Asia, Europe, North Africa, Americas and the Middle East. Only digital ra ...

, thus extending to the Middle East. In 2005, Enlace started transmitting on

Galaxy 23 Galaxy 23 is the name given to the C-band service of the Galaxy 23/EchoStar IX communications satellite jointly owned by Intelsat and EchoStar located at 121° W longitude (20Years, i=1° (2024)), serving the North American market. It was b ...

and

Galaxy 19 Galaxy 19 is a communications satellite owned by Intelsat located at 97° West longitude, serving the North American market. Galaxy 19 replaced Galaxy 25 which is nearing the end of its design life and has been moved to 93.1°W longitude ...

extending to North America. In 2006 they moved transmission to the satellite

Galaxy 14 A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...

. In 2007, Enlace started retooling their infrastructure in Costa Rica, in addition to launching on the Nossa TV platform in Brazil transmitting from satellite

Galaxy 28 Galaxy 28 (*geb. IA8) is a communications satellite owned by Intelsat located at 89° West longitude, serving the North America and South America market. It was built by SSL (company), Space Systems/Loral, as part of its SSL 1300 line = (plus m ...

. In 2008, Enlace and Enlace Juvenil received new imagery and look, and they started transmitting on

DirecTV Latin America Vrio Corp. (formerly DirecTV Latin America LLC; stylized as Vгio) is an American-headquartered company that manages the commercial operations of the Latin American branch of DirecTV (mostly known as DirecTV Latin America). It is owned by Grupo ...

for the first time from the satellite Galaxy 3C.

Background

The network's lineup consists of faith programs including church services, music videos, concerts, talk shows, children's programs, and movies. Over 80% of its programs are produced in Latin America by ministries such a
Claudio Freidzon
of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, Cash Luna of Casa De Dios in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

, and U.S. Hispanic organizations such a
Guillermo Maldonado
of

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, and

Danilo Montero Luis Danilo Montero (born 1 November 1962) is a Costa Rican contemporary Christian music singer, author, and pastor, who is pastor of Lakewood Church's Spanish-speaking congregation. Biography Born on 1 November 1962, in San Jose, Costa Rica, ...

Lakewood Church Lakewood Church is a non-denominational evangelical Christian megachurch located in Houston, Texas. It is among the largest congregations in the United States, averaging about 45,000 attendees per week. The 16,800-seat Lakewood Church building, ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Availability

The network is accessed via free-to-air satellite. Having been launched in the United States on May 1, 2002, Enlace is currently available through various cable providers nationwide, and previously was carried over-the-air on

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

s of TBN owned-and-operated and affiliated stations, usually on the fourth subchannel until February 2024. Enlace is also available across North America, including Mexico on Glorystar Christian Satellite. The network is also streamed on Enlace and TBN's official website for use externally in browsers and media players, available at different speeds for dial-up and broadband connections, and is also available through TBN's

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

and

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of consumer electronics that includes streaming players, smart TVs (and their operating systems), as well as a free TV streaming service. The brand is owned by Roku, Inc., an American company. As of 2024, Roku is the U ...

apps. On December 16, 2009,

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

in the United States began carrying Enlace on channel 448, making it available for part of its various English, Spanish and international packages. In February 2011,

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

began carrying Enlace on channel 9411.

References

External links

* {{Costa Rica TV Christian mass media companies Evangelical television networks Television stations in Costa Rica Trinity Broadcasting Network Television channels and stations established in 1988 Spanish-language television stations