In Conversation at NATPE: Telemundo’s Browne and Univision’s Uva

LAS VEGAS, January 30: In
panels moderated by Anna Carugati, the group editorial director of World
Screen and TV Latina, at NATPE, Univision’s CEO, Joe
Uva, and Telemundo Communications Group’s president, Don
Browne, discussed the rapidly expanding U.S. Hispanic market.

Uva, who has been in the
top post at market-leading Univision for a year, noted that the broadcaster
reflects “what it means to be Hispanic in the U.S. today. There is an
unbelievably passionate connection that exists between audiences and our
networks, our radio stations and Univision online. It’s something I’ve not seen
anywhere else in the world. It goes well beyond the value that audiences derive
from pure entertainment and news programming. When we speak to our audiences,
they describe Univision as the defender and protector of their culture, their
language. This bond is truly unique for a media company.”

Key to Univision’s
strength, Uva said, has been investment in content that speaks to the issues
facing the U.S. Hispanic population. “Over the period 2004-2006, Univision
invested $850 million in community and public services, on topics that are most
important to Hispanics in the U.S.: education, literacy, health, the tradition
to digital TV in 2009, the path to citizenship” and this year’s presidential
election. “We believe that if we produce programming that is relevant to them
and important to their lives, we will maintain that connection.”

Uva also cited Univision’s
tremendous success in the key 18 to 34 demographic. “On most nights were are
ranked in the top three networks, regardless of language, in 18 to 34. In fact
when we launched our new 8 o’clock novela, it broke all records among 18 to 49,
but most importantly in Los Angeles and Houston, it beat American Idol in 18 to 34.”

At the heart of
Univision’s dominance is the breadth of its portfolio, Uva explained, which
allows “a viewer, listener, online user or mobile customer to connect with us
any time of day, anywhere they are. If we’re running a blockbuster novela on
Univision and somebody wants to watch a hit movie, they can go to TeleFutura.
If they want a big sporting event, they can go to Galavisión. We’ve got
something for everybody in the Univision family. From an advertiser
perspective, we offer them the right to borrow the equity we’ve established
with the audience. Smart advertisers, the marketers who want to have
sustainable growth, recognize that for every dollar they spend with a Univision
property, they’re investing in their own growth.”

In the next 12 to 18
months, Uva said, Univision will “continue to expand our offerings and
platforms online and on mobile. Retransmission consent is a big opportunity for
us. We’ll continue to look at new ways to better integrate the assets in the
portfolio. We’ll continue to focus on original production. We’ll continue on
the public-affairs side. Our focus is on sales and marketing as growth drivers
for the company.”

And in three to four
years, Uva said that strategy could pay off, with growth of the U.S Hispanic
population continuing to accelerate: “Univision could be, night in and night
out, the number-one network” across all of the free-to-air broadcasters.

In his session, Browne
outlined how Telemundo is looking to gain on its rival with a slate of original
content and investment in digital initiatives, bolstered by increased revenues
from the exploitation of its titles on the international market, via Telemundo
Internacional. “We’ve seen seven months of year-on-year growth,” Browne noted.
“We had the best January in history. All driven by original content that we
produce and control.”

By producing its own
novelas, Browne says, Telemundo has the flexibility to make changes to shows
that aren’t working. “Some of our novelas are only four or five days from air.
So if a novela is not doing well, we can go focus group it, we can go back and
change the story line and correct it. We’ve done it several times. One of the
most important was with Dame chocolate, which turned out to be one of our most successful novelas, but it
got off to a rough start.”

Telemundo has also used
creative product-integration techniques, Browne said, again citing the case of Dame
chocolate. “It was a triple win
for us: one, we were able to fix it, two, we were able to keep the product
integration in good shape, three, we were able to create an international
product that we’re now selling.”

Browne added that in order
to implement an original programming strategy, developing new talent was
crucial. As such, the broadcaster launched Taller Telemundo: Escritores to
train a new generation of telenovela writers. “When you bring these people that
normally wouldn’t get access to this business and you turn them loose
creatively, they can speak to this audience in more relevant ways than we can.”

Staying relevant also led
Telemundo to enhance its online offerings, teaming with Yahoo! for a
Spanish-language portal, and bolstering its mun2 youth-skewing network for
bilingual, acculturated Hispanics. Telemundo has also managed to lower the
median age of viewers on its flagship network, he says.

A key strategy for Browne
is using Telemundo’s original productions to speak to issues affecting the
Hispanic community. “I come from a journalistic background. I believe in the
power of television to inform and empower and inspire. In every novela we put
in two or three social themes: education, health, literacy, voter
registration.”

The international market
has also been at the heart of Browne’s strategy. “We weren’t an international
player three and a half years ago. Now we have one of the strongest brands in
the world. We grew 30 percent year to year in terms of international revenue.
We are number one in so many different countries. Now we’re also in Asia, which
has a tremendous appetite for novelas. These novelas travel really well because
they’re contemporary and they’re aspirational.”

—By Mansha Daswani