Former Univision President and CEO Joe Uva has been tapped to lead Telemundo and mun2. Uva joins NBCUniversal in the new role of Chairman, Hispanic Enterprises and Content, in charge of overseeing the company’s Hispanic networks. He’ll start the new job on April 3 and will report to NBCU’s CEO Steve Burke.
Emilio Romano, President of Telemundo and mun2, will report to Uva.
Uva joins NBCU/Telemundo exactly 2 years after leaving Univision, where he led the #1 Spanish-language network from 2007 to 2011.
NBCUniversal made the announcement today as part of a restructuring of its executive team.
Lauren Zalaznick, who was put in charge of Telemundo and mun2 after the 2010 merger with Comcast, has been promoted to a new role as Executive VP, NBCU, overseeing business development for digital, mobile, and social media, effective immediately. She’ll also be responsible for helping develop NBCU strategy around consumer products.
Details of the changes were made in an internal memo sent by Steve Burke. Here’s a portion of that memo that details Uva’s responsibilities:
“Joe Uva will be responsible for expanding our Hispanic franchise and all of our Hispanic content efforts, including Telemundo and mun2, as well as for increasing the presence of Hispanic news and entertainment programming across all of NBCUniversal’s networks and platforms. The NBCUniversal properties reach more than 90 percent of all Hispanics, more than any other media company, and our programming needs to be reflective of our nation’s 50 million Hispanics, the fastest-growing segment of the population. Joe will work with our news and entertainment executives so our coverage better represents this shifting landscape. Emilio Romano, President of Telemundo and mun2, and his team have done a terrific job driving success at these networks, and they now will report to Joe.”
Emilio Romano also sent his staff an email, expressing the “new structure acknowledges NBCUniversal’s unique position to cater to this dynamic community and Telemundo and mun2 are obviously a key component of this strategy,” and acknowledged Zalaznick’s role in improving the visibility of Telemundo within NBCU:
“Lauren has been a tremendous partner and a huge advocate for us at the corporate level. From negotiating the rights to the FIFA World Cup starting in 2015, to helping us get the rights for the international franchise of La Voz Kids, Lauren has been an unconditional partner and instrumental in bringing our company to where we are today. We will miss her dearly and wish her the best in her new role.”
NBCU also consolidated all of its cable entertainment properties, including USA, Syfy, Bravo, E!, Style and Oxygen under Bonnie Hammer, who is now Chairman of NBCU Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios.
According to the LA Times, NBCU’s cable entertainment portfolio is the most lucrative division, generating approximately 50% of the media giant’s operating cash flow.