May 2, 2007
Mintz Jumps to Telemundo
Itinerant Hispanic television executive Joshua Mintz jumped ship from Azteca America, where he was director of programming and production, to Telemundo as VP of talent strategy. According to Telemundo, Mintz "will be charged with scouting and securing top on-air talent.” He will report to Telemundo Studios president Patricio Wills.
Mintz spent one year at Azteca America following previous stints at Univision and Televisa. At the time of his hiring last April, Azteca America issued a press release that included the following statement from CEO Adrian Steckel: "We are excited to have Joshua on board as we lead our network into meeting the demands of the rapid growth we are experiencing. We look forward to a long, productive relationship that will tap his wide programming experience as we move forward."
In an interview with Hispanic Television Update last June, Mintz was asked about the competitive landscape for Hispanic broadcast television. At the time, he responded, "The inertia that viewers have with Univision goes back many years. It is an addiction to Univision. I will go head-to-head with Univision. Azteca is super-competitive with its novelas. In two years we will have a 10% audience share. It is the same as when TV Azteca competed against Televisa for the first time in Mexico. Telemundo has had patience and the right strategy."
Mintz was also asked during that same interview about the difference between being based in Los Angeles and Miami. He said, "I love Miami and am fascinated by it, but Miami is a mirage. Everything is out of context. On the other hand, I can go to East L.A., walk around, eat a taco and have contact with my audience. Aside from that, it is the entertainment capital."
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AZA Dumps Sorpresa! in Favor of Discovery
Azteca America, which previously ran programming from Spanish-language children’s cable network Sorpresa! on Saturday and Sunday mornings, will instead now run shows from Discovery Kids en Español. In addition, Azteca is already running on Sundays at 10 p.m. what it described in a release as a "one-hour Discovery en Español branded programming block."
Azteca America CEO Adrian Steckel said, "The agreement is a win-win situation, offering our growing audience and distribution network the best of Discovery en Español."
Luis Silberwasser, senior VP and GM of Discovery Networks U.S. Hispanic Group, in the same release said, "extending our content to Azteca America ensures that more Spanish-speaking consumers in the United States will now have access to Discovery's world class programming."
Azteca previously aired eight hours a week of Sorpresa! programs to meet its obligations under the Children's Television Act. According to an SEC filing in April by Sorpresa's parent company, the agreement between the two networks provided Sorpresa! with two minutes of inventory each hour. Azteca and its affiliates retained the remainder of spots. The agreement was set to expire in July "with an option for Azteca America to extend the agreement for a three-year renewal term."
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Online Newsroom Launches
Four former Telemundo employees have launched a local Spanish-language online newscast for the Bay Area at VersionLatina.com. The group is headed by former KSTS news director Jonathan Ruiz and features reports from among others former anchor Cesar Bayano. Much of the staff at the KSTS newsroom lost their jobs when Telemundo decided last year to end locally-produced newscasts in several markets. The network now produces a newscast for San Francisco/San Jose and other DMAs out of a Dallas/Ft. Worth newsroom.
"We decided that the Bay Area needed a local news presence. Not something that's being piped in out of Dallas/Fort Worth," said Jonathan Ruiz president of VersiónLatina.com. "So we decided that the most cost-effective way for us, since this is entirely funded out of our own pocket books, was going to the Web."
Ruiz would not discuss how much he and others have invested in the venture. The staff is doing their own ad sales and marketing. Ruiz admits online ads may not be enough to financially support the Web site.
He describes the operation as a "labor of love" and adds, "You don't have to just take the decisions that are handed down by multinationals and all the corporations that are owning every single media outlet. There is a way to fight back and do what you love and do it well."
Ruiz worked at Telemundo for six years and previously worked at MSNBC and Canal de Noticias, NBC’s former Spanish-language cable news service.
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LATV launched as a multicast network last week on nine broadcast affiliates. Current markets include Houston, Las Vegas, Miami and San Antonio with another five markets to be announced next Monday. LATV president and COO Howard Bolter got his start in TV hanging lights for the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. More recently, he was senior VP of production, operations and engineering for E! Networks. Prior to that, he held a similar post at USA Network. Bolter recently spoke to Hispanic Television Update. The following is an edited transcript:
Q: Why did you take the job at LATV?
A: I was looking for something actually. I had been at E! for three years. I was looking for the next step and looking at the digital channels. I've always tried to stay on the front end of technology and program distribution. I saw digital multicast as the next generation of programming, the next opportunity. I didn't know much about LATV at the time and then I got a call at the time to consult. The more I got into it the more I really liked the creative concept behind LATV. Then the opportunity to launch a new network is always a challenge. And they kind of sucked me in.
Q: When it comes to the Hispanic multicast marketplace has the future already arrived or is it still a ways off?
A: I think it is both. I don't know that it has fully arrived. The digital transition as it occurs will definitely open up the market to Hispanics. The great thing about multicast is you are on cable through the relationship with the broadcaster and you are over the air. The over the air is free to the world. [That's] a great opportunity. [Before 2009] people will begin to see us over the air. It changes the gatekeeper scenario of cable carriage. The broadcaster and cable operator can now work together to bring programming to an underserved market.
There is some over-the-air viewership now because we are seeing that on the programs we started running last week. We are starting to get e-mails and a huge uptick on our Web site.
Q: What is LATV's identity and how is it distinct from your direct competitors?
A: I am going to give it to you as succinctly as possible. We are going to promote the richness, vitality, coolness of the Latino youth culture -- that is our identity. We want to use this channel to influence our viewers to stay in school, pursue higher education, to become responsible citizens. We want to do all that in a creative and hip way.
We don't expect to stay music-based very long. We expect to have music be the driving force but we expect to grow into much more lifestyle, fashion and a lot of other elements, which really show the diversity and creativity of the Latino culture.
Q: LATV used to be a low-key, breakeven on an operational cash-flow basis kind of business. Now you've gone on a hiring spree and are spending big bucks. Why the change?
A: We are spending appropriately to launch a channel of this size. We had to fill out the departments it takes to run a network. You look at the hiring spree, the bulk of it has been to fill out a lot of areas to run a network. There were departments that didn't exist. We are going 24/7, 365. It was more of a necessity to be able to deal with all the elements it takes to run a network.
Q: You answered from an operational perspective. But what about a strategic perspective? Why try and expand the footprint so dramatically?
A: There is a huge upside to success. You really need more air time to get more advertising money and more viewership, higher ratings. We are only speaking to a small group here. We are only speaking to L.A. We want to speak to the entire country. We think we have something that the entire country is interested in. In fact, we think we have something the entire world is interested in hearing. We intend to grow the channel well beyond the U.S. We think it has international potential as well.
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SíTV Details ’08 Fare, Online Plans
(Excerpted from an April 17 article on Multichannel.com)
Sí TV, which targets young adult Latinos with English-language content, is buttressing its linear lineup for 2008 while expanding its Web presence.
Officials speaking at the 14 million-subscriber network’s upfront presentation to advertisers here Tuesday said the service acquired an action-sports series, commissioned a pair of reality shows and is working toward a program that will integrate both short-form clips and user-generated content that will toggle between the network and its Web site.
From NBC to a New Universe: Q&A With Bob Wright
(Excerpted from an interview in the April 23 issue of Broadcasting & Cable)
[Wright:] I would never give up Telemundo. The only issue we've had with Telemundo is that we came in there with a licensed-programming model and we had to abandon that to go to a production-programming model, which is a different animal.
I think we've made a very good transition from one to the other, but that was not the original plan. And so that's a bigger challenge. But I mean, having said that, we seem to be pretty good at it. [Telemundo President] Don Browne has done an excellent job.
We looked around, and it seemed to me that all of our large markets had big Hispanic populations. We thought the Hispanic population, at that time, was 30 million. Turns out it was 38 million when we got the census two years later. It's the fastest-growing population in the country.
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Haim Saban comes off as charming and driven in a profile published in the May issue of Fortune magazine. According to the article, Saban "shared a bombshell proposal with Fortune: Charge the operators an unprecedented $1 per subscriber per month for Univision." That may well concern cable and satellite operators if they don't dismiss it as mere posturing.
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Gospel Music Channel has renewed its weekly Espiritu Latino program, which highlights Christian Spanish-language music videos. The show is hosted by Latina gospel singer Julissa.
Dish Network has added V-me TV to its basic and Latino programming tiers.
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