MIAMI – NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises announced the creation of Telemundo Global Studios, a new division to be led by veteran media executive Marcos Santana. The new division will be responsible for consolidating the company’s domestic and international scripted production units under Santana’s leadership who will now be responsible for Telemundo Studios, Telemundo International Studios, Telemundo International, as well as all of the company’s co-production partnerships.
Under Marcos Santana’s direction, each entity will continue to produce its own unique brand of content geared to reach distinctive audiences. Luis Silberwasser will continue to lead the company’s U.S. networks Telemundo – the #1 Spanish-language broadcast network in weekday prime time in 2017 – and Universo, as President of Telemundo Networks. Both executives will continue to report to Cesar Conde, Chairman, NBCUniversal International Group and NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.
Prior to this role, Santana was President of Telemundo International and President of Telemundo International Studios. In that role, Santana was charged with overseeing all of Telemundo’s international distribution efforts, as well as the company’s distribution services to other producers around the world, international co-productions and partnerships. Santana has also been involved in the network’s development process for all program genres, including original concepts development, scripts procurement, casting decisions and international distribution viability assessment.
Santana joined NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises in 2007 when Telemundo completed the purchase of the operating assets of its foreign distributor, Tepuy International Corp., where Santana was President and CEO. In addition, Santana has been a longstanding and active member of the board of several important television networks in Latin America, including Televen in Venezuela and others in Panama and Spain. Santana is also a current member of the Board of the Miami Symphony Orchestra (MISO). From 2011-2013, Santana was recognized as part of The Imagen Foundation’s Most Powerful & Influential Latinos in Entertainment. He was also selected among Adweek Magazine’s 2011 Most Influential Executives and Personalities in Hispanic Media and was featured as one of the 100 Latinos Miami in 2012.
Telemundo Studios produces an average of 800 hours of programming per year, including highly-rated series such as El Señor de los Cielos, El Chema, Senora Acero, and Mariposa de Barrio, among many others.
Telemundo International Studios was founded in 2016 to produce short, high-quality short format scripted programs designed for international markets and emerging platforms. It produces big-budget miniseries in Spanish, available for different platforms, including broadcast, cable and digital media.
Telemundo Internacional is the international syndication and distribution arm of the US-based Telemundo and Universo networks, as well as other leading content producers around the world. Its international assets include the pay TV channel Telemundo Internacional, which has distribution in more than 20 countries in Latin America, and the Telemundo channel in Africa, which offers content dubbed in English and Portuguese to more than 48 countries in the region. With a content portfolio including original telenovelas, series, specials, variety and music shows, as well as fiction and entertainment formats, Telemundo Internacional has become the world’s second largest distributor of Spanish language content, reaching more than 120 countries with more than 200 programming slots dubbed and subtitled into more than 40 languages, registering a total of 56,000 programming hours outside the United States and Puerto Rico.
