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). In addition, to better take advantage of the region's pool of writers and directors, Tortorici decided to migrate Telemundo's main base of operations – transferring its programming and management divisions – from
Hialeah, Florida to a new facility in
Santa Monica, California in December of that year, resulting in the hiring or transfer of approximately 45 employees; more than 300 other employees continued to be based at its Hialeah offices. The changes proved to be disastrous as Telemundo's ratings for the overhauled prime time lineup sharply fell by 42 percent to an 8 percent audience share among Latino households against the telenovela-dominated lineup programmed by Univision (which held a roughly 91 percent share) in that slot by the February 1999 sweeps period; the network was even forced to air numerous commercials for free as part of contractual makegoods to advertisers, resulting in a loss of more than $1 million in potential revenue. After Tortoricci resigned from the network in July 1999, Telemundo tapped former
Universal Television president Jim McNamara as its president and
chief executive officer, and Alan Sokol as
chief operating officer to helm its operations. Their programming strategy reverted to a more traditional approach to Spanish-language television than the mainstream concept implemented by Tortoricci. The new team struck a programming agreement with
TV Azteca for the U.S. rights to the Mexican broadcaster's novelas and other programming, and restored a two-hour block of telenovelas originating from Mexico,
Colombia and
Brazil – later expanded to three hours with the shift of its late local and national newscasts to the traditional 11:00 (or 10:00) p.m. time slot in 2000 – as part of its Monday through Friday prime time slate which resulted in the cancellation of
Angeles and
Reyes el Rey.
Reality, entertainment and newsmagazine programs were also added to the schedule, while prime time movies were relegated to weekend evenings. In September 1999, Telemundo began transferring the bulk of its programming and marketing operations from its Santa Monica headquarters and consolidated all operations of the network at its offices in Hialeah. Most of the network's management staff migrated to the Hialeah facility including McNamara, Sokol and Galan, either on a temporary or long-term basis, with most other staff being given the option of either accepting the relocation offer or resigning from the network; some positions based at the Santa Monica facility were eliminated, with around a dozen workers remaining at the West Coast office. The network also launched
Protagonistas ("Protagonists"), a staged, unscripted reality series that followed a group of 16 aspiring actors living together in a Miami television studio for several weeks, for the opportunity to win a role on one of the network's telenovelas.
Second chance (2001–2009) In the summer of 2001, Sony, Liberty and Reliance announced that they would sell Telemundo Communications Group. Companies that expressed interest in acquiring the network included
Viacom, the
Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation,
The Walt Disney Company and
AOL Time Warner;
National Broadcasting Company, Inc. subsequently entered into negotiations to acquire the network and its related properties. On October 11, 2001, National Broadcasting Company, Inc. (which itself would merge with
Vivendi Universal a year-and-a-half later to become the present-day
NBCUniversal) purchased Telemundo Communications Group from Sony and Liberty Media for $1.98 billion (increasing to $2.7 billion by the sale's closure) and the assumption of $700 million in debt, in an equal cash and stock split by NBC parent
General Electric. Upon the announcement, many media industry experts thought that NBC overpaid for Telemundo, given the network's lower Hispanic audience reach (attracting about 20 percent of all Hispanic viewers in the United States, while Univision had a reach of about 80 percent). Jim McNamara and Alan Sokol remained at the helm of the network after the acquisition was finalized on April 12, 2002. The company also announced its intention to sell the original Telemundo station in Puerto Rico, WKAQ-TV, and Spanish
independent station KWHY-TV (channel 22) in Los Angeles in order to help finance its acquisition of
Oxygen Media. On December 21, 2007, NBC Universal announced that it would no longer seek a buyer for WKAQ-TV, indicating that
Telemundo Puerto Rico would remain within the NBC corporate umbrella.
Part of Comcast (2011–present) In 2010,
Comcast announced that it would acquire a 51 percent majority stake in NBC Universal for $6.5 billion; the deal was completed on January 28, 2011, with Comcast acquiring control of Telemundo as part of the deal. In October 2011,
Emilio Romano was appointed as president of Telemundo, a role he would handle until his abrupt resignation from the network in October 2013. On May 14, 2012, Telemundo announced that it would launch a new branding campaign that would include the debut of a new slogan and on-air identity, including the replacement of its framed "T" logo (a variant of the 1992-era design that had been introduced by the network in 1999), with a new logo featuring two partial red spheres forming the "T", described to "capture the duality of Telemundo's audience, balancing the strong connection to their Latin roots with their contemporary mindset of living in the U.S." The new logo and graphics package debuted on-air on December 8 of that year. Telemundo achieved ratings success during 2012, with the telenovela series
Rosa Diamante ("Diamond Rose"; a remake of Enrique Torres'
Perla Negra) and the
Caracol TV-produced
Pablo Escobar. That year, Telemundo debuted the "social novela" '''' on
Facebook, with comments made on other
social media websites. During the 2000s, Univision also lost several key on-air personalities to Telemundo, including longtime weekend news anchor
María Antonieta Collins (who left to host the morning program
Cada Dia),
Primer Impacto anchor
María Celeste Arrarás (who became the host of a similarly formatted newsmagazine,
Al Rojo Vivo) and sports announcers
Andrés Cantor (known to many Americans for his exuberant announcement of "Goal!" during football matches) and
Norberto Longo. By the middle of the decade, Univision overtook UPN and The WB – which shut down in September 2006 and were replaced by
The CW, which Univision also outranks – as the fifth highest-rated network in total viewership; since then, it also sometimes posts higher viewership in the key age demographics of Adults 18–34 and Adults 18–49. Other key on-air personalities that joined Telemundo from Univision or
Televisa in the 2000s are
Gabriela Spanic,
Pedro Fernandez,
Kate del Castillo,
Aracely Arámbula,
Raúl González,
Blanca Soto,
Laura Flores,
Ana María Canseco,
Cristina Saralegui. Continuing the momentum in 2013 were telenovelas
La Patrona ("The Return") and
El Señor de los Cielos ("The Lord of the Skies"), and the musical competition series
La Voz Kids ("The Voice Kids"; a Spanish language adaptation of
The Voice franchise featuring children as contestants), hosted by
Daisy Fuentes and Jorge Bernal, featuring musical coaches
Paulina Rubio,
Prince Royce and
Roberto Tapia. With the debut of
El Señor de los Cielos that spring, Telemundo also launched the "Super Series" format, a slate of action-oriented telenovelas – which usually air during the final hour of the network's prime time novela block – designed as a reinvention of the genre using the multiple-season continuity model common with English language drama series, shorter episode runs (between 60 and 80 episodes per season, compared to traditional single-season novelas, which produce between 100 and 200 episodes on average) and the incorporation of storylines more relatable to American audiences. These programs helped Telemundo decrease its ratings gap in the key demographic of Adults 18–49, decreasing the gap between the two networks by 54 percent between 2010 and 2015, with Telemundo even beating Univision four times during the 2014–2015 television season on nights when the former aired sports events and specials; the network also narrowed the ratings differentials with Univision in total prime time viewership from a gap of 1.2 million viewers in July 2013 to 238,000 in July 2015. On July 21, 2015, Telemundo beat Univision for the first time in a singular-night demographic, averaging 969,000 viewers and a .76 rating in the demographic (26K more viewers and a .2 higher share than the 943K and .74 earned by Univision's
prime-time schedule);
El Senor de los Cielos 3 ("Lord of the Skies 3") also beat the Televisa-produced novela
Yo No Creo En los Hombres ("I Don't Trust Men Anymore") on Univision in the demographic during the 10:00 p.m. hour, with a 1.4 rating (over the 0.7 rating earned by
Yo No Creo En Hombres) and was the most-watched television program among Adults 18–49 during the hour that evening. For the week of July 20–24, Telemundo came within 40,000 viewers of beating Univision in prime time viewership. ==Programming==