NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises’ Beau Ferrari

With a focus on reaching U.S. Hispanic viewers on all screens, Beau Ferrari, the chairman of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, is leading his teams to provide a range of programming, including entertainment, news and sports, to this varied and growing community. He is responsible for the group’s properties, including the Telemundo network, Telemundo Global Studios, the Spanish-language content hub on Peacock and Telemundo Streaming Studios. Ferrari talks to World Screen Weekly about the company’s commitment to serving the full spectrum of Hispanic viewers.

WS: Hispanics comprise nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population and are the second-largest racial and ethnic group. What are the challenges and opportunities of serving this rapidly growing group?
FERRARI: The Hispanic opportunity is bigger than ever. There are 62 million U.S. Hispanics in the country, and this is one of the fastest-growing demographics, projected to hit 100 million by 2050. Our audience is younger, larger and more educated than ever before, which has also led to an increase in buying power. Hispanic consumers in thecountry are generating almost $2 trillion in purchasing power. They are driving video consumption across all platforms. And we’re seeing that every company has been looking at this audience as a way tofuture-proof their business. As media becomes more fragmented, we are uniquely positioned to reach this audience across all platforms.

Our audience is truly multiplatform; 80 percent of Hispanics stream content on a weekly basis. By 2050, we’re expecting that Hispanics will consume more than 40 percent of the video in the U.S. We see a strong performance reaching the audience across every screen through our offerings across streaming, network and stations. Telemundo has the highest number of viewers on record and the highest engagement among NBCUniversal apps—ranking as the number one broadcast entertainment app in total video minutes, regardless of language. Additionally, Telemundo continues to be the number one broadcast network on YouTube—with 14 million subscribers—and the number one Hispanic network across all social media in engagement.

WS: How are you reaching them? They are on as many devices as possible, right?
FERRARI: Our audience is truly a multiplatform audience. So, we are looking to serve them on all platforms and be everywhere they are—80 percent of Hispanics stream content on a weekly basis. By 2050, we’re expecting that Hispanics will consume more than 40 percent of the video in the U.S. We see a strong performance reaching the audience across every screen through our offerings across streaming, network and stations. Telemundo has the highest number of viewers on record and the highest engagement among NBCUniversal apps—ranking as the number one broadcast entertainment app in total video minutes, regardless of language. Additionally, Telemundo continues to be the number one broadcast network on YouTube—with 14 million subscribers—and the number one Hispanic network across all social media in engagement. We’re leading the way across platforms, and, with what [we saw] with respect to the World Cup on Telemundo and Peacock, it’s been an incredible proof point of the power of our content and franchises reaching these audiences across platforms.

WS: How is Telemundo providing programming to Peacock?
FERRARI: Telemundo partnered with Peacock to provide Tplus as the content hub for this audience. It was designed to launch right before the World Cup. There was a thought that given the droves of audience the World Cup would attract, there would be a unique opportunity to introduce these very large audiences to content around the games as well. We’ve done that with additional Telemundo content, Tplus content and Peacock originals. And we have had a very strong partnership and collaboration between Telemundo and Peacock that has been a real proof point for serving these audiences on a multiplatform basis. On Tplus, we’re really looking to serve the full spectrum of Hispanics.

WS: Tell us about Telemundo’s original programming strategy and the role of Telemundo Global Studios. And by the way, congratulations on the International Emmy for Buscando a Frida.
FERRARI: Thank you. We are extremely proud of the Telemundo Studios teams. The original programming strategy includes three areas: original premium content with Telemundo Global Studios, well-known returning franchises and our blockbuster shows. We think this is an important area for growth and investment. We have continued to focus on Studios and original IP as differentiators for what we provide the audience and as a source of content. We will continue to invest in this area. La Reina del Sur came back for its third season. There’s an eighth season of El Señor de los Cielos with the surprise return of Rafael Amaya.

We’re looking to maximize the power of NBCU and the NBCU TV and streaming portfolio to help our franchises and brands reach the largest number of Hispanics across the board.

WS: And you’ve expanded Telemundo Global Studios in Mexico. Tell me about that. And are there plans for further expansion?
FERRARI: It’s about continuing to invest in IP and focusing on building additional franchises as part of our overall investment in the strategy for original content production. This new production arm will increase our on-the-ground production capabilities of scripted and unscripted content to meet the growing demand for Spanish-language programming in the U.S. and around the world. Mexico lends itself to a natural extension of that approach and strategy.

WS: What about Telemundo Streaming Studios?
FERRARI: We’ve been in this for over a decade now with successful streaming titles across platforms. Telemundo Streaming Studios was created to serve those platforms across the board with which we have been in business for a decade. But we’re also looking to create customized premium content, and maybe shorter form, in genres that we know have resonated with audiences already. We’ve been able to have high-quality content produced for platforms across the industry. Additionally, in 2019, we acquired the internationally renowned production boutique Underground Producciones based in Argentina, which has become an extension of our studios and contributes to the strength of our content pipeline.

We are the first-ever studio in Hispanic media exclusively dedicated to serving Latino audiences in the U.S. and around the world. Some of our hit titles include El marginal (seasons four and five) and Diario de un gigoló, which premiered with immediate success on Netflix across regions—from South America to the U.S. to Spain to Brazil. We also announced the start of a new project with HBO Latin America to produce Catedrales by award-winning noir author Claudia Piñeiro. We’re looking to continue to build on the strategy.

WS: What role do sports play in your content offering?
FERRARI: Telemundo’s World Cup coveragehas had extraordinary results across all platforms. Sports has been a big driver of our overall business. Our performance for the first two weeks of the World Cup on Telemundo and Peacock demonstrated the power of the portfolio and this franchise and what it can deliver. [Telemundo’s World Cup coverage averaged a total audience delivery of 2.6 million viewers across Telemundo, Universo, Peacock and Telemundo streaming platforms, up 14 percent versus the 2018 tournament (2.27 million).] It’s been a huge testament to all the planning that’s gone into it: the production quality, the audience patterns and consumer behavior around soccer and sports in general, which we have been able to unlock in a way that the industry has not seen before.

WS: You mentioned NBCUniversal. Are there other ways that Telemundo has been collaborating with its parent company?
FERRARI: Telemundo is fully integrated with NBCUniversal and [we are] consistently collaborating to bring together the best of all the companies to our audiences, our advertisers and beyond. And this comes to life across the way we do our business, from how we sell ads to how we develop best-in-class content to the experience for employees. There are many ways that we’re collaborating with our colleagues across NBCUniversal, from NBC Entertainment to NBC Sports and NBC News. With NBC Entertainment, we have collaborated on hits, including Top Chef VIP, an RCN Televisión production for Telemundo based on NBCUniversal’s format Top Chef franchise, [and] NBC’s Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party, filmed live at Telemundo Center. With NBCSports, [we have] the Super Bowl, the Olympics, Premier League, CNBC’s Shark Tank with Kevin O’Leary at Telemundo Center, NBC News collaborations with the elections, José Díaz-Balart Reports on MSNBC from Telemundo Center and then a number of other newscasts that we produce around the world.

WS: Speaking of news, which topics and issues are your viewers most interested in?
FERRARI: We take our role as a news source incredibly seriously, and informing our community is a sacred responsibility. It’s our duty to understand the causes and issues affecting our audience. So, we give them the information and resources they need, wherever they are. We are a news source but also a tool to help people navigate current events or news systems and serve as a lifeline to many. That also held true during the pandemic and certainly throughout the midterm elections and will play a major role as we get into the 2024 election cycle. This also includes causes such as misinformation and the effect on civic engagement, health, immigration, safety in the Hispanic community and other issues such as gender inequality and climate change, to name a few. We’re really focused on our role in providing news and information as a lifeline to this community.

WS: Looking forward, what’s next in the various areas you oversee?
FERRARI: We’re focused on growing Telemundo as a growth engine for NBCUniversal. This means focusing on our IP and content creation. We continue to invest in new IP and franchises, ensuring that our content is available across all screens, having content that’s advertiser-friendly but also lends itself to integration opportunities and, more importantly, putting our franchise strategy at the forefront of everything we do.

We have been able to demonstrate an ability to do this by leveraging the power of NBCUniversal to work across all content genres and bringing Telemundo’s differentiated approach to serve this fast-growing demographic. In the first quarter of 2023, we’re bringing back two of our most popular franchises, La Casa de los Famosos, which delivered great results in seasons one and two, and, ofcourse, our biggest franchise ever, El Señor de los Cielos, season eight.

A little bit later in the year, we’ve got other big events. We’re already gearing up for the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. That is going to be [this] summer. And we’ve got several new titles that we’re working on between Telemundo, Tplus and Peacock, including Menendez and Menudo Boys, Gente Sana, Love is Relative and Daddy Yankee Presents: The Story of Reggaeton. All of the content engines across Telemundo serve as a growth vehicle for NBCUniversal, and continuing our focused investments on IP will continue to be at the center of our focus.