with some ethnic brokered programs that aired on weekends including shows in Japanese and Portuguese. Sales doubled from $2.2 million in 1976 to $4.4 million in 1978. By focusing on the large Puerto Rican community in New York, WNJU was able to beat the Spanish International Network's WXTV (channel 41), with its comparatively more Mexican programming, in the ratings. To STV or not to STV In 1978, Columbia Pictures applied for authority to broadcast subscription television (STV) programming on WNJU-TV, with the STV franchisee being National Subscription Television–New York, Inc., owned by Oak Communications and Chartwell Communications. These companies were the partners in the Los Angeles operation of ON TV, which had started in that city in 1977 and became the largest such operation in the United States; a pact in November 1978 gave the New York market to Chartwell to develop. Concern was noted over the potential displacement of Spanish-language programming from prime time on channel 47, but the deal was approved. Jerry Perenchio, one of the shareholders in Chartwell, and his Tandem Productions acquired 80 percent of WNJU-TV from Columbia Pictures in late 1979 for $5 million. Chartwell gave the idea of bringing ON TV to New York serious thought; it pursued rights to the New York Yankees at a reported offer of $20 million a year and lost. It also proposed using the multichannel audio capability of the STV system to present some programs in English and Spanish simultaneously. A technical improvement also came in 1980, when WXTV and WNJU were approved to move to the World Trade Center. The idea of turning channel 47 into a subscription station was dropped in January 1981, with competition from Wometco Home Theater (which had operated in the tri-state area since 1977), extensive cable penetration, and the station's existing ratings leadership over WXTV for Spanish-speaking audiences cited among the reasons for terminating the plans. Channel 47 continued to be Spanish-language, though other suitors made unsolicited offers, some of which would have ended that status. In 1985, Grant Broadcasting System made a $65 million offer for the station, which was rejected as far too low. NetSpan and Telemundo In 1970, Carlos Barba, a former Cuban TV star who had been WAPA-TV's general manager, became the general manager of WNJU; he was promoted to president in 1980. In 1984, Barba led the creation of NetSpan, a second Spanish-language network to compete with