Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content nationally with programming syndicated worldwide to more than 100 countries in over 35 languages.
The network was founded in 1984 as NetSpan before being renamed Telemundo in 1987 after the branding used on WKAQ-TV, its owned-and-operated station in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1997, Liberty Media and Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired controlling interest in Telemundo. NBC then purchased Telemundo in 2001.
The channel broadcasts programs and original content aimed at Spanish-speaking audiences in the United States and worldwide, consisting of telenovelas, sports, reality television, news programming and films—either imported or Spanish-dubbed. In addition, Telemundo operates Universo, a separate channel directed towards younger viewers; Telemundo Digital Media, which distributes original programming content across mass media, the Telemundo and Universo websites; Puerto Rico free-to-air station WKAQ-TV; and international distribution arm Telemundo Internacional.
Telemundo is headquartered in Miami and operates a studio and productions facility in the Miami suburb of Doral, Florida, and has 1,900 employees worldwide. The majority of Telemundo's programs are shot at an operated studio facility in Miami, where 85 percent of the network's telenovelas were recorded during 2011. The average hourly primetime drama costs $70K to produce.
History Originally launched as NetSpan in 1984, the network was renamed Telemundo in 1987, after the network owners purchased the previous owner of WKAQ-TV (channel 2), a television station in San Juan, Puerto Rico, branded on air as Telemundo. On March 28, 1954, WKAQ-TV signed on. It was originally founded by Ángel Ramos – owner of Puerto Rico's main newspaper at the time, , and the U.S. territory's first radio station, WKAQ (also known as "Radio El Mundo"). Ramos wanted to maintain a consistent branding for his media properties based around the "mundo" theme (the Spanish word for "world"), and chose to brand his new television property as "Telemundo" (in effect, translating to "Teleworld" or "World TV"). On April 14, 1983, Ramos sold WKAQ-TV to John Blair & Co.
Launch as NetSpan (1984–1987)
In 1984, the owners of WNJU (channel 47) in Linden, New Jersey (serving the New York City area), and KSTS (channel 48) in San Jose, California, formed NetSpan, the second Spanish-language television network in the continental United States (behind the longer-established Spanish International Network, the forerunner to Univision). These stations joined KVEA (channel 52) in Los Angeles, run by its general manager and part-owner Joe Wallach, in 1985. The following year, KVEA's part-owner, Reliance Group Holdings, acquired the Telemundo brand when it purchased John Blair & Co., which also owned WSCV (channel 51) in Fort Lauderdale–Miami–West Palm Beach in addition to WKAQ-TV. In late 1986, Reliance also purchased WNJU.
In 1987, Reliance Capital Group executives Saul Steinberg and Henry Silverman merged all these stations into the Telemundo Group. The new corporation quickly went public, and in 1987, Reliance decided to rebrand NetSpan as Telemundo. Later that year, it purchased additional stations in San Francisco, Houston (KTMD, channel 47) and San Antonio (KVDA, channel 60).
Telemundo Group, Inc. traded on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market tier of the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol TLMDW.
Relaunch as Telemundo (1988–1997)
Between 1988 and 1993, Telemundo acquired or affiliated with television stations in Texas (KFWD channel 52, in Dallas–Fort Worth, now a ShopHQ affiliate), New Mexico (KTEL-CD channel 47, in Albuquerque), Arizona (KHRR channel 40, in Tucson) and Washington, D.C. (W64BW, channel 64; now WZDC-CD on channel 25). The new network started producing telenovelas from Miami, ending a cycle that started in Puerto Rico in the 1950s. The first such production - Angélica, mi vida, centered around three families of varied Latino immigrant backdrops - was the first such production to be made in the US mainland for the new network.
In May 1992, Telemundo underwent another management change, appointing former Univision president Joaquin Blaya – who resigned from that network after discovering in an FCC filing for Jerry Perenchio's purchase of the network from Hallmark Cards that Univision would increase its reliance on programming from Televisa and Venevision to levels that resulted in him concluding that there would be fewer opportunities for the addition of local programs on Univision's stations, and was subsequently joined by four other Univision executives – to head the network.
The following year in 1993, Telemundo underwent an extensive rebranding, introducing the signature framed "T" letter logo (which has been used by the network since that point in various design elements), and a promotional campaign using the slogan "Arriba, Telemundo, Arriba" ("Upwards, Telemundo, Upwards"). The network also began to produce its own original telenovelas, the first of which to premiere were Angélica, mi vida ("Angelica, My Life"), Marielena, Guadalupe, Señora Tentación ("Lady Temptation") and Tres Destinos ("Three Destinations"). International distributors soon approached the network for the syndication rights to air these programs on television networks in other countries. Telemundo's effort faced an initial setback when Mexico's leading broadcaster, Televisa, purchased production company Capitalvision, which had been producing the telenovelas in conjunction with the network. Parent company Telemundo Group experienced major financial challenges during this time, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1994, due to a debt load of more than $300 million that the company owed to its creditors.
In an effort to boost its tepid ratings and quell complaints from advocacy organizations such as the National Hispanic Media Coalition that criticized both networks for not featuring content relatable to American Latinos, Telemundo outlined a new strategy to better compete against Univision by increasing production of domestically produced programs. In 1995, under the direction of executive vice president of programming Harry Abraham Castillo, Telemundo opened its first network studio on the West Coast. Housed at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, the network began daily production of three shows on the lot that year: La Hora Lunática ("The Crazy Hour"), a daytime talk-variety show hosted by Los Angeles radio personality Humberto Luna, comedians Mario Ramírez Reyes "El Comodín" and Hugo Armando, and producer Jackie Torres; El y Ella ("He and She"), a daily talk show focusing on gender-related issues that was created and produced by Gigi Graciette, who co-hosted the program with Antonio Farré; and Dando y Dando ("Giving and Giving"), an audience and viewer participation game show hosted by Rafael Sigler.
The first wave of major changes to Telemundo came on August 11, 1997, when the network revamped its prime time schedule by cutting an hour of its prime time telenovela lineup; concurrently, local newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated and affiliate stations were moved an hour earlier to 10:00 p.m. (or 9:00, depending on the time zone) – placing them directly against late-evening newscasts on Fox, WB, UPN and independent stations in many markets – followed by a late-evening national newscast produced by cable news channel CBS Telenoticias; movies were also added during the 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern time slot on certain weeknights to help bolster its late newscasts.
Liberty Media and Sony Pictures join in (1997–2001)
On November 25, 1997, Liberty Media and Sony Pictures Entertainment purchased a majority interest in Telemundo from Reliance Capital Group for $539 million, beating out a bid made days earlier by an investment group led by Telemundo Group chairman Leon Black, who had already owned 40.3 percent of the network through Apollo Global Management and remained a minority partner in Telemundo Group through the purchase; under the deal, Liberty acquired a 40 percent interest and Sony (which made its entry into domestic broadcasting ownership with the deal) acquired a 35 percent stake in Telemundo, with the remaining interest held by investment firms Apollo Global Management and Bastion Capital Fund. On November 25, 1997, several investors who held shares in Telemundo Group filed an injunction to block the sale in a Delaware Chancery Court, in order to investigate whether executives were shortchanging shareholders in accepting the offer; that request, as well as a separate injunction request by Univision Communications, were later rejected.
After the sale received FCC approval on July 31, 1998, Sony and Liberty formed a holding company that was operated as a 50/50 joint venture between both companies, Telemundo Communications Group. Helmed by yet another management team under the leadership of former CBS entertainment president Peter Tortorici as president and CEO and Nely Galán as president of entertainment, Telemundo explored avenues to attract the bilingual market. The network then launched an image campaign using the slogan "Lo mejor de los dos Mundos" ("The Best of Both Worlds"), with several billboard ads being erected in cities such as Miami and San Francisco as part of the campaign, heralding a "new era" for Telemundo.
Tortorici dramatically overhauled Telemundo's schedule in an effort to boost its viewership among American Spanish language audiences, as its total audience share had slid from more than 40 percent early in the decade to less than 20 percent (and only a 13 percent share during prime time) by 1998. This "new era" broke from the conventional Spanish-language programming model, the changes made for the 1998–99 lineup included the complete removal of telenovelas from its prime time schedule, citing the inferior quality of the South American serial dramas that it had been acquiring compared to the Mexican serials from Televisa that were carried by Univision. The revamped evening lineup that premiered on September 28, 1998, included several new sitcoms, traditional scripted dramas and game shows with higher production values, including several scripted shows that were remakes of English language series owned by Columbia TriStar Television (now Sony Pictures Television), to position the network as a younger-skewing alternative to Univision more acculturated to assimilated American Latinos. Among them were Angeles ("Angels"), a remake of Charlie's Angels; Un Angel en la Casa ("An Angel in the House"), a sitcom loosely based on Who's the Boss?; Solo en America ("Living in America"), a remake of One Day at a Time. Also added to the lineup were updated Spanish language versions of The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and Candid Camera; and the police procedural Reyes y Rey ("Kings and King"). The network's existing prime time novelas were relegated to a three-hour block on weekday mornings, while movies were added in prime time on Tuesday and Thursday nights as part of the showcase "Cinemundo", featuring dubbed versions of recent American film releases (many of which were sourced from the Sony movie library).