Telemundo has salivated at the opportunity to topple its chief rival, Univision, in the ratings for many years.

Twists and turns in programming rights, and programming strategies, across the networks have left Telemundo firmly in the No. 2 position. But things are changing at lightning speed at the NBCUniversal-owned Spanish-language broadcast network.

It has invested heavily in local and national news in an era where manila folders filled with COBRA information are more common than offer letters. At the same time, Telemundo has hit its stride with so-called “super series” that shed the traditional start-to-finish telenovela story arc by introducing a second, or even third, season — something not seen since the days of Dallas, Dynasty and Falcon Crest.

Perhaps most importantly, Telemundo and its sister properties are now the U.S. rights holders of FIFA World Cup coverage in Spanish. Telemundo also happens to be the Spanish-language home of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — part of a $1.2 billion investment by NBCUniversal in securing the rights to what potentially could be a ratings and revenue windfall for parent Comcast.

It therefore stands to reason that Luis Silberwasser may be the luckiest television executive in North America. Or he may be the most challenged, given the heavy expectations presented to him and his team. Just six months into his role as Telemundo Network president, it is evident that Silberwasser is ready for battle and is leading the attack on Telemundo’s top rival, Univision.

“I am super excited about the possibilities,” Silberwasser said. “I’m super excited about being here at Telemundo. It is a very different company than Discovery, and we have very different programming genres. Here, at Telemundo, we are running a big broadcast network that has general entertainment, from prime-time programming based on scripted series to our sports offerings. The combination of those genres makes this job a challenge … and it makes this job exciting. Telemundo is a challenger, and we have a tremendous opportunity to challenge.”

BEAUTIFUL TRANSITION

Silberwasser’s lone connection to Telemundo 20 years ago — or to Hispanic television, for that matter — would likely have been a 60-second commercial for Secret or Oil of Olay. From 1991 to 1997, he was a brand manager at Procter & Gamble Co., overseeing the two beauty brands.

His entry into Hispanic television came in late 2003, when he joined Discovery Communications as its senior vice president of strategic planning in the international division. Now, armed with a Harvard MBA and a Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech, he has “gone against the stream” by strengthening Telemundo’s news operations.

“I want to give credit to where credit is due,” Silberwasser said, “and [NBCUniversal CEO] Steve Burke and [NBCUniversal chairman of Hispanic enterprises and content] Joe Uva felt as I did that, given the importance of Telemundo as a voice for the Hispanic viewer, we needed a much stronger effort to connect to the community and to connect to the Hispanic marketplace.

“We are investing in dual anchors, and [the opportunity to provide] breaking news,” he added. “We are investing in our weather coverage. The network has completely supported this, and we’ve even changed our network programming schedule so we can have a local newscast at 5:30 p.m.”

Silberwasser said he is also pleased with the ratings growth at Telemundo’s weekday morning show, Un Nuevo Día, following a six-year period that saw a name change from ¡Levántate!, a shift in production from Telemundo Puerto Rico to Miami-based studios, and the addition of longtime telenovela actress Adamari López and veteran newscaster Ana Maria Canseco — one of the original hosts of Univision’s Despierta América morning show.

“We have a ways to go, but I think we have a tremendous opportunity,” Silberwasser said. “Un Nuevo Día is a still a news and entertainment morning show, but we are providing much more information than ever before. We have segments with financial advice, with medical advice — segments that are more consistent on the schedule.”

In fact, Silberwasser said he believes Un Nuevo Día is “more of a utility vehicle” of a morning show while remaining fun. “The ‘other’ show is really about entertainment and frivolous things, while we are providing a little more info … and it’s paying off,” he said.

Additionally, Silberwasser is quick to point out that José Diaz-Balart, anchor of the 6:30pm weeknight news show Noticiero Telemundo, is now on MSNBC, making him the first news anchor in history to appear on an English-language and Spanish-language newscast at the same time. Veteran Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos appears on a newsmagazine on the Fusion cable channel, while former WSVN-Channel 7 in Miami and CNN news anchor Rick Sanchez now helms a Spanish-language newsmagazine for Miami-based Mira TV while simultaneously hosting a daily talk-radio show for iHeartMedia’s WIOD in Miami.

PRIMED FOR GROWTH

Silberwasser said Telemundo has  much room for ratings growth in prime-time — at least before 10 p.m. He’s particularly proud of his network’s performance in the 10 p.m. hour, where the Telemundo-produced telenovela Señora Acero debuted in late September and wrapped up its run on January 12. Señora Acero was the No. 5 prime-time series in Spanish-language television, averaging a 9.5 rating across its final Monday-Friday broadcasts and attracting more than 2.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen viewer estimates for Spanish-language television households for the week ended Jan. 11, 2014.

“Señora Acero [beat] the competition on a consistent basis for the past three months,” Silberwasser said. “In launching of each ‘super series,’ we are seeing numbers we’ve not seen since the first Kate del Castillo telenovela, La Reina del Sur.”

La Reina del Sur, a 2011 blockbuster telenovela, set the stage for the “super series” concept of multiple-season story arcs for Telemundo. The star power of del Castillo was key to the series’ success, and Telemundo has once again called on her to continue its ratings riches at 10 p.m. The new Telemundo Studios soap Dueños del Paraíso, in which del Castillo stars, is now airing in Señora Acero’s old time slot.

“We are creating telenovelas with the idea that [the shows] can come back,” Silberwasser said. “Usually in this marketplace they come and they go, and perhaps seven years later they’ll come back as a remake. Now we have a Season Two, or a Season Three, of a show. We’re giving the viewer something different, and you’ll notice that the tone of our 10 p.m. telenovela is different than what has been seen at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.”

Indeed, Telemundo broke new ground on telenovela plots by airing the Caracol TV-produced Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal, based on the true-life occurrences of Colombia’s most notorious drug lord, from July 2012 through early January 2013.

SOARING WITH SPORTS

Although the next FIFA World Cup is three years away, Silberwasser said Telemundo and basic-cable sibling NBC Universo (née mun2) are already employing a portfolio strategy that involves getting viewers interested in the athletes set to make a statement in 2018.

“We will be the Spanish-language broadcast home of the under-17 games, and a lot of those players will be stars of the 2018 World Cup,” Silberwasser noted. “We want to follow them, and take those tournaments ahead of the big tournament seriously, instead of just focusing on the main event.”

Player profiles will help in establishing familiarity with these potential future stars.

The use of social TV, where live tweets and social media updates corresponding to a Telemundo program help generate conversation among viewers, will also likely help build early interest in FIFA programs. Social TV is already generating buzz at Telemundo for the level of activity associated with some of its telenovelas.

“One of the fascinating things I found here was the symbiotic relationship between our social side and our programming side, and how the one side supports the other,” Silberwasser said. “It’s the conversation that happens, and the viewer engagement, that are truly amazing. For the final episodes of Señora Acero, I was watching it on screen and following the Twitter feed at the same time, and people were really into it.

“With the plot line, everyone thought that the lead male character was going to incriminate the lead actress on the show, and they were upset,” Silberwasser said of Señora Acero. “But in the end he didn’t, and everyone reacted by putting hearts all over the Twitter feed. Our viewers are commenting while things are happening, and they are very much engaged with the story. That is something that I hadn’t seen before. Social TV is something we are all learning how to do better. Hispanics are a young audience, and we have to think of a multiscreen environment when thinking about this audience.”

Understanding the audience and all of its Telemundo touchpoints is one component of a network vision that Silberwasser has done much to fulfill in the short time he’s been at the network.

“We have a vision to be the best of what Hispanic America is all about,” he said. “This market deserves something different: unique original content for the people that live here. My goal is to ride the curve of the growing U.S. Hispanic population. While this marketplace still has a foot in Latin America, it is a market that lives here and is growing in economic and political clout. I think we are positioned to be the best place for this audience.”

Telemundo has partnered with Excelencia in Education and the Smithsonian Latino Center to support its Apprender es Triunfar (Learning Is Succeeding) initiative aimed at Latino students.

The year-long campaign, promoted via two websites (telemundoteinspira.com/aprender-es-triunfar in Spanish and telemundoteinspira.com/learning-is-succeeding in English), is designed to get Latino youths and their parents more involved in STEAM education, which includes Science, Technology, Engineering Arts and Mathematics.

Excelencia in Education will work with Telemundo to create co-branded content, such as a “Latinas in STEAM” white paper that will tie into Women’s History Month, in March, and a fact book that will include research and statistics on the current state of Latinos in education. The Smithsonian Latino Center will focus on reaching out to Latino youth and families via its “¡Descubra! Meet the Science Expert” series, which will showcase STEAM education and career paths. That program will extend through this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month, scheduled for Sept. 15-Oct. 15,

“We are dedicated to providing Hispanics with the best information about education in the science, technology, engineering, arts and math fields as we work towards increasing Hispanic representation in those career fields,” Raquel Egusquiza, NBCUniversal’s vice president of community affairs, Hispanic enterprises and content, said.  

Excelencia in Education and the Smithsonian Latino Center join existing partners the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), ¡Adelante! U.S. Education Leadership Fund and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). So far the program has distributed backpacks to students in key Hispanic markets, hosted an education town hall meeting and released a documentary film, Underwater Dreams, in Los Angeles and New York. 

In another move to support the campaign, Telemundo will begin airing monthly news segments on Noticiero Telemundo  profiling prominent Latinos who have succeeded in a STEAM field. Additionally, the network will create public service announcements, aimed at parents and featuring news anchor Jose Diaz-Balart and reporter Vanessa Hauc, to promote awareness of career opportunities in the various STEAM fields.

Hispanic viewers are interested in watching news programming that discusses issues pertaining to them, but find little coverage of such issues on English language news networks, according to Telemundo and MSNBC news host José Diaz-Balart.

With the 2014 mid-term elections coming up and the issue of immigration resonating among Hispanics, Diaz-Balart – who hosts Telemundo news/public affairs shows Noticiero Telemundo and Enfoque, as well as MSNBC’s daily 10 a.m.- 11 a.m. timeslot -- says Hispanics are interested in legislation in Washington D.C.that affects their lives.

“Sometimes I think we’re living in the United States in two different worlds,” said Diaz-Balart during a video interview with Multichannel News. “The Spanish speaking audience is keenly focused on some key issues happening in Washington whereas maybe the English speaking media and certainly the television audience may feel as if we’ve seen that before and there’s nothing new.’”  

When asked how much coverage the mainstream news networks devote to Hispanic issues, Diaz-Balart responded “muy poquito” or very little. Catch the full MCN Multicultural Perspectives interview with Jose Diaz-Balart here.

NBCUniversal’s Telemundo has made another move that bolsters its commitment to news.

On Oct. 4 at 5 p.m., Telemundo will premiere a 30-minute national weekend newscast, Noticiero Telemundo Fin de Semana. The new telecast, to air every Saturday and Sunday, will be anchored by Edgardo del Villar, most recently the news anchor for Telemundo’s Un Nuevo Dia weekday-morning show.

“Noticiero Telemundo Fin de Semana further confirms our commitment to inform our audience seven days a week, all year long,” Alina Falcón, Telemundo’s executive vice president for news and alternative programming, said. “This is another step in the process of expansion at Telemundo that also includes the launch of additional local newscasts and the production of news specials and documentaries.”

A Telemundo news veteran, Del Villar has covered a variety of news stories, including major flooding in Acapulco and drug trafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border. Before joining Telemundo, Del Villar served as the anchor for Las Noticias, the primetime newscast at Televisa’s Monterrey, Mexico, station. He has also spent more than 10 years at Mexico’s top news radio networks, MVS, Radio Fórmula and Núcleo Radio Monterrey.

As reported in the August edition of Hispanic Television Update, Telemundo has invested heavily in its news department at both the local and national level.