New York -- Azteca America, the broadcast network and Spanish-language programmer, dug into the headlines for its first U.S.-based original series. It's called El Muro, or The Wall. Set along the Arizona-Mexico border, the drama will break up into 10 blocks of five episodes around a central narrative -- "a love story between Adriana, an undocumented immigrant, and Calixto, the immigration officer in charge of her deportation." Network CEO Manuel Abud said the show, in early production and slated to premiere in 2018, would entertain and "tap into issues that are of extreme interest to our audience."

At an upfront event for advertisers at the Times Center, Azteca America (owned by Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca) executives said its mix of entertainment shows and events like the Miss Universe pageant, back for a third year in a row and with new "Camino a la Corona" backstage buildup programming, led to sizable gains in total viewers (33%), adults 18-49 (28%) and adults 18-34 (29%) in primetime for 2015-16, citing Nielsen.

Another new primetime original is El Manicomio (Mental Hospital), a thriller series about a reporter who goes undercover in a psychiatric hospital. The network is adding boxing (Knockout, a U.S.-produced reality series) and mixed martial arts in the form of Combate Americas Azteca fare. A deal for more than 1,000 hours of Turkish drama series from KANAL D adds to a stockpile of action fare.

On the sales and digital fronts, Azteca America said it had new digital TV slash programmatic pacts, with Videology for programmatic buys and with Zype to spread its original news and entertainment content on OTT platforms including Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku.

Los Vaqueros are coming to three Azteca América stations in the Lone Star State.

The National Football League's Dallas Cowboys have struck a deal with Azteca América that will make O&Os KDVF in San Antonio, KDAF in Austin and KYDF in Corpus Christi official Spanish-language partners of one of pro football's most-storied franchises. 

Under the two-year deal, announced late in July, the three stations will telecast live, Cowboys-produced preseason games announced by Victor Villalba and Luis Fernando Pérez. The 2016 broadcast schedule is comprised of Cowboys games versus the Miami Dolphins on Friday, August 19, at 7 p.m. (CT), the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday, August 25, at 9 p.m. (CT) and the Houston Texans on Thursday, Sep. 1 at 7 p.m. (CT). Pregame shows will precede the Cowboys' home games against Miami and Houston.

Once the regular season kicks off, the stations will air a monthly, Spanish-language edition of Cowboys Report.

Luis Hernandez, GM of KVDF, tells Multichannel News the games are fully produced by Cadena de Plata Radio, the Cowboys' Spanish-language radio and television network, with sales opportunities and promotional efforts left to the Azteca América stations.

“The team already has a dedicated effort to reaching the Hispanic market, as the Cowboys are a very beloved and respected club in the Hispanic community,” Hernandez said. “They are the most popular of the two NFL teams in Texas.”

A section of the Dallas Cowboys’ official website — Somos Cowboys, sponsored by Ford — is dedicated to Spanish-speaking fans. The regularly updated @somoscowboys Twitter feed is also available for Spanish speakers, as is the Somos Cowboys Facebook page.

Telemundo-owned KDVA in San Antonio aired the team's Spanish-language preseason games last season; Austin and Corpus Christi are new Spanish-language markets for the team. In addition to Dallas-Fort Worth, other Cowboys Spanish-language markets are Abilene, Bryan-College Station, El Paso, Lubbock, McAllen-Harlingen-Brownsville, and Waco.

While Hernandez could not speak of the reasons behind the Cowboys’s shift from Telemundo to Azteca América in San Antonio, he notes that the Cowboys were impressed by his stations’ “ability to be pretty nimble and to pre-empt network programming in order to run live team broadcasts.” He added that Azteca’s corporate executives saw the opportunity to gain viewers with the Cowboys and raised no objection to pre-empting network programming.

Sales efforts are a bit lagging, Hernandez admitted. “We’re a little behind the eight-ball, as most Fortune 500 brands completed their media planning in late June," he said. "We have four of five brands that have expressed interest, and they represent a combination of local, national and regional brands. Texas brands are a natural match, of course.”

Hernandez said he expects to reveal the sponsors by the second week of August, while continuing to work closely with local businesses to create customized programs.

“We are very excited to be aligned with Azteca América as the provider of our Spanish-language broadcasts for the Dallas Cowboys preseason games and Cowboys-related programming,” Cowboys executive vice president Jerry Jones Jr. said. “We have always been grateful for the loyal fans who have watched our Spanish-language broadcasts through the years, and that is especially true for the strong fan followings in San Antonio, Austin and Corpus Christi.”

Villalba’s first turn at calling Cowboys games in Spanish came in 1996, as a color commentator for the team’s radio broadcasts. A season later, he added the roles of producer and host of the team’s Spanish-language TV broadcasts to his resume. After a stint away from the team, he returned in 2002, with affiliate relations expanding to Mexico a year later. He’s been with the Cowboys ever since, and since 2005 also serves as the Spanish-language play-by-play announcer for the National Basketball Association’s Dallas Mavericks.

On-air partner Perez has been with the Cowboys since 2004. From June 2009 to November 2013, he also served as co-host for Zona ESPN on ESPN Deportes Radio AM 1540 in Dallas.

Since the 2012 NFL season, all of the league’s broadcasting partners have added Spanish-language coverage of some regular-season games, either through SAP on a Spanish-language network. Some games aired by NBC also air on NBC Universo; select Fox telecasts also air on Fox Deportes; and ESPN Deportes airs all of sister network ESPN's Monday Night Football games. ESPN Deportes also aired a Spanish-language telecast of Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7, through a sublicensing deal with English-language rightsholder CBS.

New for the 2016-2017 season, the Denver Broncos have teamed up with Telemundo O&O KDEN in Denver for Tiempo Extra con Los Broncos, a 30-minute live highlights show beginning Sunday, Aug. 14, and running through Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017. It’s the first-ever team-focused broadcast on Spanish-language television in Denver.

Other teams that have forged pre-season Spanish-language coverage agreements in recent season include the Green Bay Packers, with WYTU in Milwaukee; and Miami Dolphins, with Azteca affiliate WWHB in West Palm Beach.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears in June inked a Hispanic marketing agreement with local shop PACO Collective, which has been working with baseball's Chicago White Sox since 2010.

“Professional football is the most popular sport in America, and yet, when it comes to Hispanic audiences we still have to invite this segment through culturally relevant content and conversations to evolve from fans to family,” Paco CEO Ozzie Godinez said in a statement. “We’re going to be helping the Chicago Bears make sure they gain the most Hispanic engagement in Chicagoland and across the U.S. by appealing to the sense of community that drives NFL fan support and game attendance.”

Some 8.7% of NFL game viewers are Hispanic, according to Nielsen. That’s up from 5.5% in 2004.

Research conducted for ESPN shows the NFL as the second-most popular sport among Latino television viewers, behind soccer. Among Latinos who prefer to consume media in English, however, the NFL is by far the leader.

In related Azteca América news, the network is mourning the loss of veteran executive Roel Medina, who died unexpectedly at his home July 30 in Katy, Texas at the age of 55. Medina had served as GM of Azteca’s KYAZ in Houston since 2012.

Prior to joining Azteca Houston, Medina spent 11 years at Telemundo, where he served as a station general manager in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, respectively. He earlier worked for Univision, where he was Director of Marketing and Creative at KXLN in Houston.

“Roel Medina was creative force and a hard working executive who was ‘one of a kind,’” Azteca América CEO Manuel Abud said. “Above all, he was a man of deep convictions and a big heart. He was deeply committed to the Texas communities his stations served.”

Azteca Station Group executive vice president Enrique Perez added: “Roel made enormous contributions to our station group and company. He was a brilliant, beloved leader, not only for Azteca, but also within the entire Texas television community, which knew him so well and for so long.”

On May 16, media buyers, planners and multicultural advertising executives will once again spend three days shuttling around Midtown Manhattan to enjoy free drinks, savory hors d’oeuvres and a largely positive presentation on why 2016-17 will be vitally important for their clients to engage with broadcast and cable television viewers.

Upfront Week is still vitally important. Television — particularly Hispanic television — remains a key conduit for reaching current and potential consumers, Clorox chief marketing officer Eric Reynolds said at last month’s Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies conference in Miami Beach, Fla. These comments were echoed by the agency heads and broadcast media executives in attendance, who acknowledged the rise of digital and social media but also stressed multicultural marketers cannot ignore Hispanic television.

But the biggest headline this year may be what Upfront Week attendees won’t.

Gone are separate upfront presentations from ESPN Deportes and Telemundo. Those networks will now be featured in presentations from big sibling ESPN and parent NBCUniversal, respectively. Univision is still doing a standalone upfront presentation.

Discovery U.S. Hispanic networks had not publicly announced its upfront plans at deadline for this article. Additionally, beIN SPORTS has not released details on its May 16 upfront presentation, which will include discussion of its Spanish-language networks serving U.S. Hispanics.

Here’s a brief run-down on what advertisers can expect starting May 16 in New York:

MONDAY, MAY 16
Morning
(Time TBA)
beIN SPORTS

6:30 p.m. TELEMUNDO
Hammerstein Ballroom, The Manhattan Center
Jennifer Lopez, currently serving as executive producer and co-star of the NBC crime drama Shades of Blue, will treat Upfront attendees with a private concert. According to the network, Lopez’s performance will mark the first of several collaborations by the entertainer in upcoming Telemundo projects to be announced. NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and its brands Telemundo and NBC Universo will join the NBCUniversal advertising upfront presentation that morning at Radio City Music Hall as part of its entire portfolio of broadcast and cable networks.

TUESDAY, MAY 17
9:15 a.m.
ESPN
Minskoff Theatre

ESPN has used the Minskoff Theatre for the last several years, but this will be the first time ESPN Deportes buyers will be in attendance to hear about the Spanish-language sports network’s properties and advertising solutions. Previously, ESPN Deportes held its own events at locales such as Hearst Tower, where in 2014 it hosted a breakfast presentation and shuttled VIPs to the event, seated alongside key talent such as sportscaster Jorge Ramos.

Details on ESPN Deportes’s role at ESPN’s total market presentation were scant at deadline. However, John Fitzgerald, vice president of multimedia sales for ESPN Deportes and ESPN Audio, said advertisers interested in his networks will hear about the power of total market reach, and its live sports programming — rather than its studio shows and talent such as the aforementioned Ramos.

11 a.m.
UNIVISION
Lyric Theatre

“United We Stand, Together We Grow:” That’s the slogan behind a new marketing campaign that will serve as the theme of Univision’s 2016 upfront presentation.

According to the network, the motto highlights Univision’s core differentiators: young and influential viewers, “massive unduplicated reach” and its commitment to serving the needs of its diverse multicultural viewers.

“The Univision story is a unique one that no other media company has,” Univision executive vice president and chief marketing officer Jessica Rodriguez said in prepared comments. “Our ‘United We Stand, Together We Grow’ campaign illustrates our ability to reach high value multicultural consumers in the U.S. by delivering on our unyielding mission to inform, entertain, and empower our audience anywhere, anytime,” she said. “With fun and inspirational creative, this campaign demonstrates Univision’s unique ability to help our marketing partners deliver sustained business growth.”

Keith Turner, Univision’s President of Advertising Sales and Marketing, added, “We inspire loyalty among our young, influential, digitally savvy audience, which allows us to deliver results for advertisers across our multi-platform distribution network.”

The campaign, developed by the Our Man In Havana agency, will include out-of-home billboard displays in key markets, as well as print and digital advertisements.

AN EARLY JUMP ON UPFRONTS

Azteca America conducted an upfront road show this year, with events for advertisers already held over the last several weeks in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Dallas.

For the network, it’s “Game on!” That’s the theme of its upfronts, with advertisers learning about a roster of family game shows, adventure reality programming, dramas and live sporting events from network president Manuel Abud and executive vice president of network sales and digital Craig Geller.

“Azteca America enters this upfront season on the heels of delivering its best March ratings in five years across all key demos in primetime,” Abud said. “We have made good on all of last year’s promises and our ‘Game On!’ theme underscores our proven counter-programming strategy, further solidifying our position as an entertainment leader in the U.S.”

Azteca also introduced its digital programming strategy under the theme “A Better Life,” with content that is specific to the needs of its audience. By going to AztecaAmerica.com, visitors can get the latest news, entertainment and sports in their language and from their point of view. “

“A Better Life” extends into other social media as well, with feature deals, opportunities and information important to Latinos, available on their computers and mobile devices, and through social media platforms.

Donald Trump for months has been viewed inside the Beltway as engaging political theater, a party “renegade” and a gift to pundits on both sides of the aisle.

But after his Super Tuesday delegate haul — not a sweep, but a strong showing that solidifies his front-runner status — “President Trump” is no longer a laugh line.

Well, almost.

A Washington-based telecommunications lawyer, no fan of the candidate, was still taking the suggestion with a healthy dose of arch humor last week in responding to a request for input on what the telecom policy bent of a Trump administration would be.

Actual Trump Statement: “We’re going to build a great wall on the border with Mexico and the Mexicans will pay for it!”

Translation to Telecommunications Policy: Disband the FCC’s International Bureau and require any licensee with even 1% foreign ownership to leave the country (that means you, Sprint and T-Mobile).

Actual Trump Statement: “We have to stop all Muslims from entering the U.S. until we can figure out what the hell is going on!”

Translation to Telecommunications Policy: Block all Internet traffic originating from Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt, and every other majority Muslim country.

Actual Trump Statement: “I had a lousy earpiece.”

Translation to Telecommunications Policy: Ban NPR.

A President Trump, arguably the first thin-skinned elephant in captivity, might want to ban the media in general. He has called them “horrible” people and said as president he would try to make it easier to apply libel laws to penalize journalistic “hit” pieces.

Despite his media antipathy though, he remains a TV hit: Early Nielsen numbers showed that March 3’s Republican debate on Fox News Channel tallied 16.9 million viewers, making it the highest-rated debate of 2016 and the second-highest-rated telecast in Fox News’s almost 20-year history.

— John Eggerton

Azteca America Brings Its Upfront to Buyers

Last May, executives at Azteca America, like their counterparts at other U.S. Hispanic networks, held an upfront event in New York where they talked up programming plans and partied with ad buyers. Some of the net’s executives even performed in a “Chicago”-style number at the event.

This year, the network, owned by Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca, is ditching the song-and-dance routine for four smaller meetings and parties with clients in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and … New York.

“Rather than waiting for all the clients to come to this hectic week in New York, we decided to take the upfront to them beforehand,” CEO Manuel Abud told The Wire.

But don’t media buyers expect a big production and enjoy the bustle of Hispanic Upfront Week in New York? “Honestly I’m not sure that’s the case,” he said. “If you look at the schedule, there’s a lot of people trying to do that, and we think it’s going to be better for the businesses to take the upfront to them. I guess we’ll see.”

Thus far, he said, buyers seem to like the approach — two days of client meetings with a party at the end, on a smaller scale than last year’s Best Buy Theatre production.

How did last year’s upfront sales do? “OK, not as great as I wanted us to do but we had decent growth,” Abud said — another reason to change things up a bit.

By the time the week of May 16 rolls around, and Univision and MundoMax (who’ve already announced plans) and others are doing their upfronts in New York, Abud and company will have wrapped their gatherings in Los Angeles (March 30), Chicago (April 5), New York (April 13) and Dallas (April 21).

Abud, who joined as CEO in May 2014, said the Azteca America pitch revolves around Mexican soccer and a primetime schedule of a game show at 7 p.m., a reality show at 8, a newsmagazine at 9 and an action series at 10. “It’s working. It’s a good combination, it’s a good alternative.”
— Kent Gibbons

Azteca America has secured the Spanish-language rights to this Sunday night's telecast of The Miss Universe Pageant, rights that became available after then-owner Donald Trump made incendiary remarks concerning Mexican immigrants (as part of his presidential campaign) and Univision dropped the telecast, as did NBC. Fox is the English-language broadcaster for this year's pageant, which Trump sold to WME/IMG after acquiring NBCUniversal's stake in The Miss Universe Organization as part of litigation settlement with Telemundo parent NBCU.

The telecast will be Sunday (Dec. 20) at 7-10 p.m. ET. 

The pageant features contestants from more than 80 countries, and five of the last seven winners have come from Latin American countries. The reigning Miss Universe, Paulina Vega, who will crown her successor at the end of the evening, is from Colombia. Contestants are judged in three categories: evening gown and interview. In English, the pageant will be hosted by Steve Harvey, and on Azteca America for the Spanish-language broadcast the hosts are Vanessa Claudio and Poncho de Anda. The telecast is distributed in more than 190 countries worldwide and is seen by more than half a billion people annually. Azteca-owned Azteca America says it reaches 67% of U.S. Hispanic households.

Azteca America will add to its soccer coverage with the debut of a live local show Viernes Futbolero Tiempo Extra, the network said.

The series -- the only local live Spanish-language sports show aired in Los Angeles -- will air immediately after the network's live Mexican League match and will feature game highlights, stats and analysis, according to network officials.

Viernes Futbolero Tiempo Extra will also feature such segments as Deporte al Extremo, which will feature extreme and spectacular sports occurrences; El Sube y Baja, whichwill describe which teams are doing well in the league; Cual es la Mejor Jugada, which will feature replay highlights of the games, and El Fan de la Semana in which one lucky fan will be invited to participate live on the show to express their own opinion about the games and to dialogue with the show’s host.

“Viernes Futbulero Tiempo Extra is a natural primetime extension of our highly-rated Viernes Futbolero, (Friday Night Futbol) franchise,” said Enrique Perez  executive vice president Station Group, Azteca America in a statement. “This new offering further expands our footprint in local sports programming and reinforces our commitment to our audience to provide the best and most comprehensive coverage of the most popular sport among our community. We are confident this new post show will be well received by our soccer hungry viewers and sports fans overall.” 

Following the announcement its new name, Spanish-language network Azteca (formerly known as Azteca America) has revealed its upcoming programming lineup. During its upfront presentation in New York, the network unveiled new series as well as additional live sports coverage.

The network has created a new sports franchise called Friday Night Futbol, which will showcase two live Liga MX games each Friday night during the primetime slot. 

Azteca has also launched Las Bravo, a new novela featuring Edith Gonzalez, Mauricio Islas and Saul Lizaso. New programming also includes El Club del Chiste, a comedy series which gives viewers a look at comedians both on the stage and behind the scenes. 

The network has also detailed a new awards program called Premio Mujer, which seeks to honor accomplished Hispanic Women in the U.S. 

Returning series to Azteca include La Academia Kids, Ventaneando, Venga La Alegria and Al Extremo.