Enlace is a

Latin American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-e ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

-based

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...

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

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

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

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, the province of the same name. It is in the center of the country, in the mid-west of the Costa Rican Cen ...

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

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...

(as Enlace TBN). Its broadcast facilities are located in

Irving, Texas Irving is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. Located in Dallas County, it is also an inner ring suburb of Dallas. The city of Irving is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. According to a 2019 estimate from the United States Census Bureau ...

. Around the world, the channel is aired free-to-air via satellite as well on

Digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...

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

History

Jonas González Rodriguez 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 television license under Number 167 for use of the channel 23 UHF frequency in the Metropolitan region of Costa Rica. 1987 saw the establishment of an office in

San Antonio, TX ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

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 whi ...

. In August 1988, TBN founder Paul Crouch donated a driver with 10 watts to Channel 23. Later engineer Ricardo Jarquín installed the first transmitter for Channel 23. Channel 23 began transmitting on September 9, 1988. In January 1990 they installed a transmitter with 1000 watts in the Irazú volcano. During 1991 a trademark was filed for the name Enlace. In 1992 Channel 23 began expansion progress. The channel installed three repeaters in

Limón Limón (), commonly known as Puerto Limón, is a district, the capital city and main hub of Limón province, as well as of the Limón canton in Costa Rica. It is the seventh largest city in Costa Rica, with a population of over 55,000, and is ho ...

, 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. Later on August 2 of that year Channel 23 began transmitting vía satellite during TBN's flagship program '' Praise the Lord.'' In 1996 Enlace launched on the Mexican satellite Soldaridad 2 transmitting 24 hours a day, extending their signal all over Latin America. During 1998 they changed their satellite to Pas-5 extending all over Europe. In 2000 they changed their satellite again to Pas-9, also on that year Enlace Juvenil TV was launched. In 2002 TBN Enlace USA was launched as part of TBN's digital lineup alongside The Church Channel and JCTV. 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 r ...

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 9 communications satellite jointly owned by Intelsat and EchoStar located at 121° W longitude, serving the North American market. It was built by Space Systems/Lor ...

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. It was ...

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

Galaxy 14 A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar S ...

. In 2007, Enlace started infrastructure changes in Costa Rica. Also, on that year Enlace launched on the

Nossa TV Nossa TV (Eng: ''Our TV'') is a Brazilian Satellite television, satellite television service of Romildo Ribeiro Soares, R.R. Soares' International Church of God's Grace. The service was officially launched on 14 September 2007 in the metropolitan ...

platform in Brazil transmitting on its satellite

Galaxy 28 Galaxy 28 is a communications satellite owned by Intelsat located at 89° West longitude, serving the North America and South America market. It was built by Space Systems/Loral, as part of its SSL 1300 line. Galaxy 28 was formerly known as Tels ...

. In 2008, Enlace and Enlace Juvenil received new imagery and look. Also on that year Enlace started transmitting on

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

for the first time on their satellite

Galaxy 3C Galaxy 3C (or Galaxy 13) is a communications satellite operated by PanAmSat from 2000 to 2006, and by Intelsat from 2006 to today. It spent most of its operational life at an orbital location of 95° W. Galaxy 3C was launched on June 15, 2002, with ...

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 ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, Cash Luna of Casa De Dios in

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

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

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

, and Danilo Montero of

Lakewood Church Lakewood Church is a non-denominational evangelical Christian megachurch located in Houston, Texas. It is one of 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 most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

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 is 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 compres ...

s of TBN owned-and-operated and affiliated stations, usually on the fourth subchannel. 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,

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sy ...

and

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduced ...

apps. On December 16, 2009,

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

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 Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling ...

began carrying Enlace on channel 9411.MyDISH: Real-Time Online Guide. Retrieved on 2016-09-28 from https://www.mydish.com/guide.

References

External links

Enlace Internacional
{{Costa Rica TV Christian mass media companies Evangelical television networks Religious television stations in the United States Trinity Broadcasting Network Spanish-language television networks in the United States Television channels and stations established in 2002