MUMBAI: US broadcaster CNN has announced that CNN Chile, which it says will be the first 24-hour news network in Chile, presented its executive team and official network logo as it prepares to begin broadcasting before the end of the year.

CNN veteran Rolando H. Santos joins the network as senior VP for Turner Latin America and as senior strategic advisor in charge of supervising the launch. Renowned Chilean journalist Patricio Hernández will serve as news director, while Rodrigo A. Fernández becomes director of technology and operations and Alicia Alderete Deney will be director of finance.

The new CNN Chile logo incorporates the national colors of Chile with the distinctive red letters of the CNN brand.

CNN Chile, a partnership of Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and Liberty Global's VTR, will be produced and presented by Chileans for Chileans and broadcast from studios in Santiago. In addition to a fully staffed local news production center, CNN Chile will have complete access to CNN Worldwide's newsgathering resources including the support of 4,000 journalists based around the globe.

CNN Chile will be operated by a locally based management team following all CNN's globally acclaimed journalistic and editorial guidelines. This joint venture marks the first of its kind in Latin America for both companies. CNN Worldwide has successful partnership channels in other parts of the world, including CNN+ in Spain; CNN Turk in Turkey; CNNj and CNN.com.jp, both in Japan; and CNN-IBN in India.

Santos joins CNN Chile after serving as senior vice president of CNN International and, before that, as executive vice president and general manager of Headline News, a role that made him the first Hispanic to head a 24-hour cable news network in the United States. Hernández previously served as programming and creative director for Corporación de Televisión de la Universidad Católica de Chile (Canal 13).