Telemundo
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| Telemundo | |
 |
|
| Type | Broadcast television network |
|---|---|
| Country |  United States |
| Availability | National |
| Owner | NBC Universal |
| Launch date | 1954 in San Juan, Puerto Rico 1987 in the continental United States |
| Website | www.yahootelemundo.com |
Telemundo is a American television network based in Hialeah, Florida. Founded in San Juan, Puerto Rico by Angel Ramos in 1954, it is now the second-largest Spanish language network in the US, behind Univision. Don Browne is the network's president.
Telemundo, which owns studios in Miami, also produces much of its lineup in-house. Many programs air with closed captions in both Spanish and English. Its owner, Telemundo Communications Group, is part of the NBC Universal division of General Electric.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] 1954-1987
WKAQ-TV became the first Telemundo TV station on March 28, 1954. The station was founded by Angel Ramos, founder of Puerto Rico's main newspaper at the time, "El Mundo" (The World) and Puerto Rico's first radio station (and third licensed radio station in the world), WKAQ-TV. Ramos wanted to maintain a consistent branding between its properties using the "mundo" theme, and thus named WKAQ-TV "Tele Mundo" (Tele World). He had tried to obtain a TV license as early as the mid 1940s, but due to an FCC licensing freeze for all new American TV stations, Ramos had to wait until 1954 to obtain the license.
During the 1970s and 1980s, WKAQ-TV (then branded as Telemundo Canal 2), was a major producer of Puerto Rican Spanish soap operas. The channel was also known by its "fingers" logo (a bold number 2 with the silhouette of two upright fingers inside the number), calling itself "El canal de los dedos" (The channel of the fingers).
WKAQ-TV has produced and broadcasted recognized local shows such as "El Show de las Doce", "La Gente Joven de Menudo", "En Casa de Juanma y Wiwi", "Los Kakucomicos", "Noche de Gala", "Estudio Alegre", "La Pension de Dona Tere", "El Show de las Doce", "No te Duermas", Marcano el Show", "Super Sabados", "Fantastico", "El Tio Nobel", "Telecomicas" among others. It also produced famous telenovelas such as "El Hijo de Angela Maria", "Tomiko", "Cristina Bazan", "El Idolo", "Viernes Social", "La Verdadera Eva", "Coralito", "Tanairi" and others. One of the most important producers at WKAQ-TV is Paquito Cordero, who has been at the station since 1954 both as an actor as well as producer, mostly for the cancelled "El Show de las Doce".
[edit] 1985-1987
In 1985 KVEA in Los Angeles was purchased by Estrella Communications, whose owners were Reliance Group Holdings, Joe Wallach and Paul Niedermeyer. KVEA became the first full-time independent Spanish language station in Los Angeles.
In 1986, Reliance purchased Blair Broadcasting, which included the independent Spanish-language station WSCV in Ft. Lauderdale/Miami and Puerto Rico's WKAQ-TV, known for decades as "Telemundo Canal 2". Reliance also purchased WNJU in New York, a long-time independent Spanish language station.
In 1987, Reliance merged all these stations into a new corporation, Telemundo Group, which also went public that year, and launched the "Telemundo Network".
Later in 1987, Telemundo purchased additional stations in San Francisco, Houston and San Antonio.
[edit] 1988-1991
Between 1988 and 1991, Telemundo acquired stations in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Washington. The network decided to outsource their news division in 1988; CNN to produced two newscasts, branded "Noticiero Telemundo CNN".
[edit] 1992-1998
In 1992, Telemundo went through another management change, this time under former Univision president Joaquin Blaya. Television shows were cancelled or merged. Longtime Telemundo executives were released and in 1993, Telemundo branded themselves with the campaign, Arriba, Telemundo, Arriba.
In 1993, Telemundo began a trend that has been proven to be moderately successful: producing their own soap operas. The first soaps were "Angelica, mi vida", "Marielena", "Guadalupe", "Señora Tentación", and "Tres Destinos". In no time, Telemundo saw their productions being courted by international markets and syndicators. Their effort was set back, however, when rival and industry leader, Televisa, bought Capitalvision, the production house that had been making the Telemundo soap operas.
[edit] 1998-2001
In 1998, Telemundo was bought by a partnership between cable's Liberty Media and entertainment conglomerate Sony Pictures Entertainment Helmed by yet another management team under the leadership of former CBS executive Peter Tortoricci, hopes of attracting the bilingual market were explored. Lo mejor de los dos Mundos ("The best of both worlds") campaign was launched. Several billboards went up in cities such as Miami and San Francisco heralding a "new era" for Telemundo.
[edit] 2001-present
In 2001, Telemundo was purchased by NBC and is now a part of NBC Universal. Jim MacNamara remained at the helm of the network during and after the sale. Their main competitor, Univision, continues to have an upper hand in the ratings wars, though not in all time slots. Telemundo produces more programming than Univision and does not rely strictly on Mexican shows. In contrast, Univision's schedule is heavy on Mexican shows since it is part-owned by Mexican media giant Televisa. After three successful years, NBC officials asked MacNamara to resign, and replaced him with Don Browne, who had been head of NBC affiliate WTVJ in Miami.
In 2004, Telemundo created Telemundo Television Studios in Florida. The network also began subtitling their telenovelas into English in the hopes of getting Hispanic Americans that did not speak Spanish to tune in. Subtitles are broadcast by using closed captioning. All of Telemundo's telenovelas are also closed captioned in Spanish. However, in order to activate the captions in English, viewers have to tune the caption to CC3, a closed-caption channel widely available on most newer-model televisions less than five years old.
In March, 2007, NBC Universal announced it restructured Telemundo's entertainment division in an effort to narrow Univision's ratings dominance.[1]
[edit] Logos
 The present logo used from 2000. |
[edit] Primetime Schedule
Movies shows are in red;Reality/Game Shows are in green; Primetime Talk Shows are in blue; Telenovelas are in purple.
| 7:00 PM | 7:30 PM | 8:00 PM | 8:30 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:30 PM | 10:00 PM | 10:30 PM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Cine Millonario | Vas o no vas | Various Programing | What's new: With Monica Noguera | ||||
| Monday | Dame Chocolate | Marina | Zorro: La Espada y La Rosa | Decisiones | ||||
| Tuesday | ||||||||
| Wednesday | ||||||||
| Thursday | ||||||||
| Friday | ||||||||
| Saturday | Quinceanera | Movie | ||||||
[edit] Upcoming Programs
- Madre Luna ("Mother Moon") - telenovela
- Sin Vergüenza ("Shameless") - telenovela - replaces Decisiones on April 16, 2007.
[edit] Stations
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official Site co-branded Yahoo.com site in Spanish
- Official Schedule
- Telemundo, from the Museum of Broadcast Communications website
- NBC Universal's media village website
