As subscription television declined, Oak sold KBSC-TV in 1985 to a group that relaunched it as Spanish-language KVEA and was instrumental in the foundation of Telemundo.

The Kaiser independents in such cities as Detroit (WKBD-TV), Philadelphia (WKBS-TV), and Cleveland (WKBF-TV), for instance, were typically the first or second such non-network outlets in operation.

Before signing on, it took an option on the Phonevision subscription television system developed by Zenith Electronics and licensed by Teco, gaining the right to use it in the Los Angeles market.

[6] However, Phonevision's ability to be used nationally and legal cases over subscription television in California had left the system unapproved by the time channel 52 started broadcasting.

[7] The Phonevision agreement expired in 1970, and the FCC gave approval the next year for Kaiser to begin using studios at 5746 Sunset Boulevard—Metromedia Square, home to KTTV.

[8] Two months later, Kaiser announced it would seek to sell the station to the Pay Television Corporation[9] in a transaction filed with the FCC in February 1973.

[10] The application remained pending at the FCC for nearly two years; ultimately, the company opted to franchise its technology and not be a station owner, resulting in the purchase being canceled in February 1975.

The $1.2 million[12] transaction, which closed the next year, set the course for channel 52 to become the first station in their planned subscription television venture, as Oak moved the studios from Metromedia Square to a site on Grand Central Avenue in Glendale.

In 1979, the company moved its headquarters from Crystal Lake, Illinois, to the new planned community of Rancho Bernardo, California, to be closer to the entertainment industry.

The two sides disagreed over Perenchio's appointment of William M. Siegel, the chief executive of Chartwell, as the general manager of National Subscription Television—Los Angeles.

[30] One of the company's auditors, Arthur Andersen, qualified its statement, fearing that Oak could not fully realize its $134 million investment in subscription television.

NetSpan's founding affiliates were WNJU in New York, ethnic independent KSCI channel 18 for the Los Angeles market, and Chicago's WBBS-TV.

Less than a year after starting up KVEA, Reliance acquired John Blair & Co., which agreed to be purchased for $300 million to avoid a hostile takeover.

The deal united KVEA with WSCV—the Miami-area station Oak had sold off two years prior—and WKAQ-TV in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

After Frank Cruz, a former KNBC news anchor who had been with the station since the 1985 launch, left in early 1989,[46] three ranking Mexican staffers resigned together that June.

Between February and August, seven longtime staffers were dismissed for supposed budgetary reasons, though one anchor, Ana Cecilia Granados, alleged that new manager José Ronstadt had a bias toward Mexicans and ousted her for being Central American.

[52] The network then purchased KWHY-TV channel 22, its former pay TV competitor and later a Spanish-language independent, for $239 million in June 2001, creating a duopoly.

[61] Despite being an integrated operation, unlike at KNBC, KVEA's anchors and reporters remained non-union until voting 18–1 to unionize with SAG-AFTRA in January 2023.

[36] One of the station's early coups was its coverage of the 1986 San Salvador earthquake, which drew new news viewers and started competition with KMEX.

[67] In 2007, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa admitted that he had an extramarital affair with Mirthala Salinas, a KVEA reporter who at one time covered the political beat.