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VIPS


Luis Fernández

Almost five decades in the industry

An illustrious career in Hispanic media

Luis Fernández, current president of Noticias Telemundo, will retire at the end of the year, after almost five decades in the media industry.

«I have fulfilled my dream, to be a journalist, with passion and humility, to exercise what García Márquez considered ‘the best job in the world.’ I’m retiring after 46 years, the last six on @TelemundoNews. Very grateful to life, my parents, and everyone with whom I shared excellent teams”, he said in his Twitter account.

“Being a journalist was a dream and today is an honor. (…) I decided to become a journalist, convinced that it requires dedication, honesty, rigor, and independence. And humility!”, he wrote in a second tweet.

SPOTLIGHT


Cynthia Hudson

CNN Plus in the US will include a menu of CNN en Español products available to the audience. “We will be broadcasting several series and documentaries that will be available within the platform. We are very happy with our presence. There will be originals for CNN Plus and other products that will be shared, including some of the greatest hits that we do,” highlighted Cynthia Hudson, SVP and General Director of CNN en Español and Hispanic Strategy for CNN/US.

Hudson adds that the CNN en Español brand has been solidifying in digital terms.

Mar Martínez-Raposo

For Atresmedia Internacional, the US Hispanic market is fundamental, «due to its size and strength of its main operators, and the enormous vitality of the Spanish-speaking community,” said Mar Martínez-Raposo, General Director of Atresmedia Internacional.

In 2021 they had a major launch with Verizon, which already is the third channel in its signal offering. “There are several open conversations that will bear fruit in the coming months. Many things are moving in that market, the interest in content in Spanish is growing and our offer fits very well with what operators are looking for,” she said.

Nicolás Coates

“Mexicanal is now available on Verizon Fios TV in high definition for viewers throughout the United States. The channel can be found on Fios TV Channel 1514. It is included in the Region Mexicana package, which is part of the Spanish-language category,” explained Nicolás Coates, VP Distribution & Business Development, Castalia Communications.

One improvement they undertook recently was switching Mexicanal from SD to HD. “We know viewers want to enjoy content leveraging the technological features of their devices and HD is a must for this,” Coates pointed out.

Luis Villanueva

SOMOS Group is pleased and taking advantage of the new opportunities that arise with vMVPDs. In addition, they are always trying to increase the value of its channels ViendoMovies and Semillitas with the best content.

«We believe that, ultimately, the quality options continue to matter the most to the consumer and in that sense we improve our products both in content – movies, animations, and others – as well as in the technical quality of our signals, both in HD,» said Luis Villanueva, president, and CEO of SOMOS Group.

Guillermo Sierra

HITN’s Edye platform will be closing deals with at least three major US operators by the first quarter of 2022. It will also announce launches in Puerto Rico soon. In addition, the platform will be available soon in Brazil and there are ongoing talks for other territories globally.

Guillermo Sierra, Director of Television and Digital Services at HITN, said that the Edye B2B system for the US is fully operational and they are in talks with a pediatric hospital that will be the first pilot program for the service.

Valentina Alvarado

INTI TV is betting on a new product, FAST’s INTI PACHA channel, which was launched in October.

“INTI PACHA is a new channel, with programming that is different from that of our main signal but maintaining the same essence. INTI PACHA aims to create awareness through content related to healing, well-being, and connection with nature. The signal is on Samsung TV Plus in Mexico and our goal is to be able to reach more platforms within this year,” said Valentina Alvarado, Head of Corporate Alliances and Social Responsibility at INTI.

Doris Vogelmann

Vme is currently devoted to extending in the US its distribution through digital platforms which offer linear channels, such as Vidgo and Sling, and also in having a VOD offering associated with the affiliates that distribute linear channels.

“Regarding Latin America, part of our original productions are available on Pluto TV. In the US, we do not rule out the possibility of extending the brand beyond the linear offering, but it is something that we are discussing internally,” said Doris Vogelmann, VP of Programming and Operations of Vme.

Carlos Cabrera

«2021 has been a year where all Cisneros Media units have made progress,» said Carlos Cabrera, VP of Sales, Pay TV, Cisneros Media. He noted that VePlus has continued to grow in distribution and advertisers, they launched Novelísima in the US, and Mobius.Lab reached important production and distribution agreements for their properties in the US and Latin America.

Novelísima and VePlus are two completely different proposals in terms of programming, target audience, and business model.

Director of Business Development for Latin Entertainment Group

2021 was an important year for Latin Entertainment Group, LLC marking their entry into the digital arena. “This year allowed us to pivot into the streaming space in the United States, as we launched two of our leading channels, CINE HISPANO and MIMUSICA, with digital media company Canela Media. We are eager to announce several launches lined up for 2022 with leading vMVPD and CCTV partners,” said Sara Rojas, Director of Business Development for Latin Entertainment Group, LLC. (LEG).

Patrick Rivet

Patrick Rivet, CEO of THEMA America, said that they are focused on positioning and consolidating Kanal D Drama’s digital offering. «Our new streaming service arrived at the US Hispanic market in October, and the reception it has had indicates that it promises to become the main entertainment alternative for Spanish-speaking audiences who love Turkish series in the Americas,” he pointed out.

PAY TV


José E. Velez Silva

Comcast, VP Multicultural Brand Marketing

Comcast: Adapting to reflect the consumption habits of our audience

Latinos being pacesetters of cultural and technological change, Comcast continues to innovate right alongside them. “We’re adapting to reflect the consumption habits of our audience…and shape a new era in Hispanic media. This includes a specific focus on streaming, which Hispanics tend to over-index on when it comes to media consumption,” said José E. Velez-Silva, VP Multicultural Brand Marketing de Comcast.

Free/ad-supported programming accounts for close to 50% of total viewing on the Xfinity Flex.


Tom Montemagno

EVP of Programming Acquisition for Charter Communications, Inc.

Charter: Our Spectrum TV App allows us to keep up to date

A great part of Charter Communications’ strategy to keep up with the changing video landscape is focused on the Spectrum TV App. “The app is the go-to TV-viewing platform for millions of our customers and is actually one of the highest-rated streaming apps in the country,” said Tom Montemagno, EVP of Programming Acquisition for Charter Communications, Inc.

He explained that the Spectrum TV App can be installed on the most popular operating systems and devices, including iOS, Android, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Kindle.

Tom Montemagno

EVP of Programming Acquisition for Charter Communications, Inc.

OTT


Burke Berendes

MegaNoticias and RCN Más are the first FAST channels that Condista places on the market. Launched in August of this year, these channel offerings “tend to an under-served market of Spanish-speakers in the US that want high-quality streaming content from brands they know, without having to pay a monthly subscription fee,” explained Burke Berendes, partner, and Kevin Cross, Distribution executive, both from Condista.

Andrés Rincón

Canela.TV continues to grow at accelerated rates. Andrés Rincón, SVP of Sales de Canela Media, said that currently they have over 10 million unique downloads, already surpassing their 8 million end of year goal.  We’re not only growing in terms of app downloads, but also in terms of FAST channels for Canela.TV. We will have over 50 OTT linear channels by Q1’22.”

The company partnered with Nicky Jam and his team to bring the second season of The Rockstar Show to Canela Music.

Paul Presburger

This year, Pantaya aggressively ramped up the production capacity of original content for the service which continues to attract widening audience demographics.

Along with its partner company Pantelion, the company signed significant multi-year direct-to-platform movie deals with prominent production companies El Estudio, The Lift, and Traziende Films. Under the terms of the deal, each company will produce direct-to-platform Spanish-language films to stream in the US exclusively on Pantaya.

Luis Guillermo Villanueva

For Luis Guillermo Villanueva, COO of SOMOS Next, the streaming market will continue to grow and segment in options, and at the same time, consolidate to some extent due to the appearance of aggregators.

«Undoubtedly, the new online TV options, whether paid, supported by advertising or free, will make the final market situation more complex,» he said.

Rafael Urbina

PrendeTV service, in its current configuration, has been a great success for Univision, its audience, and customers, said Rafael Urbina, General Manager and EVP of AVOD Streaming at Univision.

“And beyond its success as a platform, it represents a valuable test opportunity for us aiming to launch our integrated global streaming service next year. From a commercial point of view, there has been a huge increase. We launched the service in March with nine category-leading advertisers including Chase, Clorox, Coca-Cola, Dunkin’, McDonald’s, Toyota, Universal Pictures, Verizon, and Walmart and on the August Upfront, 57 advertisers joined our service,” he said with pride.

Cosette Molina

When the Pluto TV en Español category debuted in May, it doubled the channel’s original account and featured over 20,000 hours of new and existing programming across the Pluto TV platform.

“We now feature over 50 channels dedicated to our Hispanic audiences across the platform spanning fan-favorite genres including Music, Kids, News, Sports, Anime, and more. Since the debut of Pluto TV en Español earlier this year, we have more than doubled the number of users frequenting the category, channels, and programming streamed,” commented Cosette Molina, Senior Programming Manager, Pluto en Español, Pluto TV.

BROADCAST


Luis Silberwasser

President of Univision Television Networks Group

Univision is on the fast track of its transformation

Univision’s transformation is well underway according to Luis Silberwasser, President of Univision Television Networks Group, who quoted the Q3 positive results this year revealed by the CEO, Wade Davis. “We report a +17% growth in primetime audiences; a 59% Hispanic TV share, four percentage points higher than last year, and an increase of 32.5% in advertising revenue compared to the same quarter of the previous year. previous.”

He announced that at the beginning of November they renewed their branding to UNIMÁS, to position the brand as a dynamic, bold, and cheerful network that offers a great variety of entertainment.

Luis Silberwasser

President of Univision Television Networks Group

NEWSCASTS


Benjamín Fernández

VP Newsgathering at CNNE

CNN en Español: Internet has become an extension of news channels

The transition to a multiplatform open to future technologies is the greatest next project for CNN en Español. “We are not going to survive only as a TV or digital outlet. Nowadays we have to be able to conquer all the media at the same time in order to be recognized journalistically,” said Benjamín Fernández, VP Newsgathering at CNNE.

For Fernández the Internet has become an extension of the news channels. “Not everyone has the time to sit in front of a TV set and watch the 6pm news or their favorite newscast at any time. Both TV and digital have their own clients and rhythm. So yes, we have to adapt to this platform to provide content. I think growth in the future continues to be the development of the Internet as the dominant source of information.”


Maxime Carboni

Director of Worldwide Distribution, Euronews

Euronews’ distribution in Spanish expanded dramatically

Euronews operates a Spanish media for nearly three decades with a dedicated Spanish-speaking newsroom and the help of their global network of over 600 journalists worldwide.

“The main targets of this media are the Spanish speakers. The ones from Europe, but also all over the world. Thus, the US is a natural and priority market for us and also a location where our core audience sits. Our unique content proposition coupled with the fact that our brand is recognized as a reliable and independent media amongst Spanish speakers led to a huge boost for Euronews’ Spanish edition in the last years. This growth has also been driven by the Covid context which highlighted again the importance of live TV and, particularly, News on TV and digital platforms,” explained Maxime Carboni, Director of Worldwide Distribution, Euronews.

Maxime Carboni

Director of Worldwide Distribution, Euronews

Leopoldo Gómez

President of Univision Noticias

Univision Noticias: A 24/7 digital channel and new mobile content among future projects

Although times change, the focus and essence of Univision Noticias continue to be serving the Hispanic community, according to its President, Leopoldo Gómez.

«Our vision and challenge are to become the leading Spanish-language outlet in the world, serving our audience on their favorite platforms, with a solid streaming news service and new programs and audio formats,» he added.

Among the next developments, Gómez mentions the new 24/7 digital news channel and new content projects for mobile consumption, that include new audio formats.


Patsy Loris

EVP of Telemundo’s News

Noticias Telemundo: The most relevant shift of Telemundo was finally betting on the news

For Luis Fernández, president of Noticias Telemundo, the network’s most notable shift in recent years was finally betting on the news. “And the great leap in Noticias Telemundo has been in the quality of its content, getting closer to Latinos; offering more original content; and a staging that has been recognized by the most prestigious awards, even above our Anglo competitors,” added.

Fernández, who announced his retirement at the end of the year, will be replaced by Patsy Loris, current VP Executive of Telemundo’s News.

In the future, they will continue to bet on original content. An example is the launch of Noticias Telemundo Planeta Tierra and Noticias Telemundo Investiga, which have been a benchmark and source of relevant information.

Patsy Loris

EVP of Telemundo’s News

SPORTS


Antonio Briceño

General Director of beIN SPORTS North America

beIN SPORTS: The only ones offering live sports under the FAST modality

Antonio Briceño, General Director of beIN SPORTS North America, highlighted that the only channel that offers live sports through the FAST (Free Ad-Supported Television) is beIN SPORTS XTRA, which allows them to offer a truly unique experience,

“This allows us to avoid being affected by channel saturation, and at the same time raising the exposure and brands of some of our most important properties in a way that other programming networks may not be able to. It also allows access to a sample of the premium content that is available on our main channels,” he said.

beIN SPORTS XTRA and beIN SPORTS XTRA in Spanish are available through streaming services on more than 250 million devices and on broadcast TV, making them even more accessible to viewers simply with the use of an antenna.

beIN SPORTS XTRA is in 65 markets, surpassing 13.2 million homes through broadcast TV, while beIN SPORTS XTRA en Español is in 54 markets, in about 11.3 million homes through broadcast TV.


Matías Rivera

CEO, Fz Sports

Fanatiz is developing new exclusive productions

2021 has been a positive year for Fanatiz. Many projects consolidated, including the integration of Fanatiz, Nunchee, and 1190 Sports to create Fz Sports, a company born at the beginning of the year “and which represents a disruptive way of linking technology, the OTT market, and the sports rights,” said Matías Rivera, CEO of Fz Sports.

Fz Sports paved the way to the launch of Brasileirao Play powered by Fanatiz, the official platform for Brazilian soccer, and AFA Play powered by Fanatiz, for Argentine soccer, which live within Fanatiz and are added to the offer of content they already have.

In addition, during the first semester, they launched Fanatiz México in alliance with Fox Sports México and Claro Sports, as well as the leagues of Argentina and Brazil, and many other contents in several territories. «Today Fanatiz is the service with the largest content of live soccer in the entire Mexican market,» Rivera said.

Aiming to enhance Fanatiz’s content offering and user experience for 2022, Rivera announced that they are actively working on some new exclusive productions for the platform, while developing, in parallel, several experiments of new consumer formats and transmission of events. live.

Matías Rivera

CEO, Fz Sports

Carlos Sánchez

EVP and General Manager of FOX Deportes

FOX Deportes celebrates its 25th anniversary

FOX Deportes was born on November 1st, 1996. That date, 25 years ago, the channel made history as the first Spanish-language sports network in the United States.

Over the years, the network has been home to big sports properties and was the first to air in Spanish in the United States some of the greatest: The English Premier League, The World Series, The Super Bowl.


Olek Loewenstein

President of Sports Content at Univision

Univision Deportes: Soccer is key in programmatic TV offering

For Olek Loewenstein, President of Sports Content at Univision, the consumption of live sports events through the different platforms is one of the most relevant trends in the current market.

“Soccer has become key in the programmatic offer of open television, cable television, and, of course, of the different digital platforms. At TUDN we are the leaders in the sports offering for our audiences in both Mexico and the US. Our partnerships with LigaMX clubs, the Mexican Football Federation, US Soccer, UEFA, Concacaf, MLS, and many more, allow us to provide soccer fans with non-stop action throughout the year,” he highlights.

Olek Loewenstein

President of Sports Content at Univision

Ray Warren

President of Telemundo Deportes

Telemundo Deportes has its energy focus on the 2022 World Cup

Preparations for the 2022 World Cup, which for the second consecutive year will be on Telemundo’s screen for the Hispanic US (from November 22 to December 18), began in December 2020 with a call in conference with 130 people, said Ray Warren, President of Telemundo Deportes, who added that two years before the Cup, the Advertising Sales team was talking with their clients.


PRODUCTION


Sebastián Jiménez

Sebastián Jiménez, CEO and Founder of JK Media Group, announced the launch of JK Studios in Burbank, California.

“We just opened a studio facility here in Burbank, within a location of more than 10,000 square feet (more than 3,000 square meters). It consists of three recording studios; we have just acquired it. It’s a modern and new facility. Very soon we will be sharing images of it,” he explained.

Marie Leguizamo

Banijay Mexico & US Hispanic will focus on unscripted shows such as shiny floors’ shows, game shows, docu-follows, “all that content that the audience is craving for and which I can say is my specialty,” said Marie Leguizamo, Managing Director of Banijay Mexico & US Hispanic.

“The US Hispanic market is me. I grew up in New York where I spent most of my life and for a long time in Miami, and now in Los Angeles, where I live now. I understand a lot what viewers, clients are looking for. I am very happy to have the opportunity to produce in that market,” she said enthusiastically.