London – NBCUniversal International and Ole Communications announced the formation of a significant, new joint venture in Spanish Latin America, comprised of five NBCU pay-TV channel brands – Universal Channel, E! Entertainment Television, Studio Universal, Syfy and Telemundo Internacional.
Effective immediately, this new multi-region, multi-channel partnership is a major milestone as NBCUniversal builds scale in Latin America, strategically aligning the company’s channel assets in one powerfully combined portfolio covering Spanish Latin America and E! in Brazil. The new venture will fuel the growth of NBCU’s channel brands in the region, unified to compete even more effectively and build profile with affiliates, advertisers and viewers, enabling the group to supercharge its marketing efforts and increase focus on local production, among other opportunities.
Kevin MacLellan, Chairman, NBCUniversal International commented: “We have a strong, long-standing relationship with Enrique Cusco and the Ole team, mainly via our E! Latin America JV. Ole is an excellent partner and we have the utmost respect for Enrique and his team. We are excited to expand our relationship with Ole to create a robust, five-network portfolio, which will be a game-changing move for our business in the market. Latin America is an important region for NBCUniversal International, and this strategic channels realignment will help drive growth for our pay-TV operations into the future.”
Enrique Cusco, CEO of Ole Communications added: “We have been in the pay-TV business in Latin America for nearly twenty-five years and are confident about the industry’s continued growth in the region. We are delighted to announce that we will be expanding our partnership with NBCUniversal after 20 successful years jointly managing E! Entertainment Latin America.”
Marcos Santana, President of Telemundo Internacional further commented: “As a result of this new NBCU venture, the Telemundo Internacional channel will be significantly strengthened in Latin America, and I am confident that it will be a key driver for growing the venture’s overall business.”
As previously announced, the five channels are distributed by HBO Latin America Group (HBO LAG) throughout Spanish Latin America, as well as E! in Brazil – except for Telemundo Internacional in Mexico, which continues to be distributed by Televisa.
Separately, E! Entertainment Television’s affiliate sales have been handled by HBO LAG across all Latin America since 1996.
Additionally, NBCU maintains its very successful joint venture with Globosat in Brazil.
