Merchandise Extensions for Telemundo

NEW YORK: NBC Universal Television, DVD, Music and Consumer Products Group has signed Big Tent Entertainment as the exclusive licensing agency for Hispanic network Telemundo in the U.S. market.

The partnership is designed to support Telemundo’s development into a full-fledged lifestyle brand for the U.S. Hispanic demographic. The foundation of the expansion will be the network’s first-ever merchandise program in the U.S. Licensing deals will be made through the NBC Universal Television, DVD, Music and Consumer Products Group.

Big Tent Entertainment will develop a comprehensive licensing and merchandising and promotions program in support of Telemundo, encompassing its renewed brand vision "To ignite the power of dreams." Key merchandise categories include sports, cosmetics, electronics, room and home décor and apparel. The expected retail launch of the initial Telemundo lifestyle line is scheduled for Q1 2010.

"With over 45 million U.S. Hispanics, the Hispanic market has become one of the fastest growing and most important in the U.S. and the Telemundo brand has garnered enormous equity and trust in this market,” said Rich Collins, the CEO of Big Tent Entertainment. Alejandra Denda Hampton, the managing director of Latin America and Hispanic market for Big Tent Entertainment, added, “We believe the Hispanic market is tremendously underserved with brands that they recognize and trust. The time is right to bring solutions to retail through unique merchandise that reflects the nature of the Hispanic consumer and Telemundo.”

“We are really pleased to announce the assignment of Big Tent to represent the consumer product licensing for Telemundo,” commented Kim Niemi, the senior VP of NBC Universal Television, DVD, Music and Consumer Products Group. “Telemundo’s rapidly growing and highly-devoted audience creates a tremendous opportunity to explore the development of products related to its programming. We look forward to working with Big Tent to find new ways to extend and enhance the relationship between Telemundo and its viewers.”

“We are very excited to be partnering with Big Tent Entertainment to expand Telemundo as a lifestyle brand and bring the network to a wide scale level at retail,” noted Jacqueline Hernandez, the COO of Telemundo. “We recognize that there is a huge opportunity to expand our viewers’ connection with their favorite shows and bring it to the next level.”