NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises said Ray Warren, president of Telemundo Deportes, will retire early next year.

Warren has been with Comcast NBCUniversal for 15 years, leading the Spanish-language network’s sports division for the past six. His exit will come after the World Cup.

“Ray has been an invaluable member of our executive leadership team since joining Telemundo,” NBCU Telemundo chairman Beau Ferrari said. “His leadership at the 2018 Men’s World Cup in Russia and the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France has proven to be an unparalleled foundation for him and the Telemundo Deportes team to lead the most ambitious live multi-platform coverage of the global tournament since Qatar this fall.

“Ray has been a tireless advocate and contributor to Telemundo's position as a premier sports brand among U.S. Hispanics,“ Ferrari added. ”We are extremely grateful for his contributions, leadership and dedication to Telemundo Deportes’ world-class sports operation and for developing an experienced team that will continue to lead our efforts after the World Cup in Qatar.”

Also: Telemundo's Ray Warren Sees Soccer as Key to Olympic Goals

Before Telemundo, Warren was executive VP and chief sales officer for NBC Sports Regional Networks. Prior to that, he was a top media-agency executive with Carat and OMD. He was also president of Raycom Sports and was a top sales executive at ABC, where he sold the first million-dollar minute in Super Bowl XIX in 1985. 

“From my first day in business in 1976, and for the last 15 years at Comcast, NBCUniversal and Telemundo, it has been a great journey and an incredible journey,” Warren said. “I am looking forward to a final chapter with my colleagues at Telemundo and my extremely talented team at Telemundo Deportes, the best I have ever worked with. We will bring the most authentic and innovative World Cup coverage to all football fans across the country. I am extremely grateful to my mentors, colleagues, friends, and family for their guidance and support along the way.” ■

Comcast NBCUniversal's Telemundo will be running a record 313 hours of coverage of the Tokyo Olympics and Ray Warren, president of Telemundo Deportes, wants as much of that to be soccer as possible.

“We’re going to put on as much soccer as we can get,” Warren told Broadcasting+Cable.

The best case scenario for Telemundo would be if Mexico wins the World Cup. He’s also hoping that the U.S. Women’s Team gets gold medals.

Also Read: Tokyo Olympics Expected to Draw $2.25 Billion in Ad Revenue: Kantar

Andrés Cantor, the Telemundo sportscaster famous for hollering “goooooal” when there’s a score in a fútbol match, will be announcing some soccer matches in English for the first time since 2000, a rare treat for viewers, Warren said.

“We always say soccer is better in Spanish,” said Warren. “We do get a lot of English dominant households watching. So to be able to watch it and have the guy who makes it fun speaking English will be very cool.”

Cantor is expected to call the Brazil-Germany men’s game and some U.S. Women’s National Team games. His schedule will be worked out between NBC Sports and Telemundo Deportes. “We’ll make a lot of decisions on the ground,” Warren said.

In addition to soccer, sports Telemundo will be focusing on will include boxing, basketball, BMX, beach volleyball, surfing and skateboarding. NBC, in contrast, will show more gymnastics, swimming and track and field.

Also Read: NBCU Plans Record 7,000 Hours of Olympic Programming

Telemundo will also tailor its coverage to follow athletes from Latin America, South America, Spain and Portugal. “As they get closer to medals, we’ll keep a closer eye on them,” Warren said. 

“We’re going to serve our fans. If you serve the fans, the fans will serve you. They’ll watch and they’ll engage and they’ll love you for it,” he said. 

Sports are very important to Telemundo and the Latino audience. “We talk about being the home of the biggest and best global sports in Spanish language,” Warren said. The Olympics are a big deal. “They’re the next biggest deal to the World Cup.” Telemundo also has the rights to the upcoming World Cup soccer tournament. 

Also Read: Telemundo Upfront: 1,000 Hours of Original Content in 2021-22

Telemundo does not have a dedicated sports network. It is just beginning to work with Comcast NBCU’s streaming service Peacock on Spanish-language channels and programming and is still working out its plan for the Olympics, which could include a daily update show.

Warren also said he’s already talking to Peacock about ways to stream more content from the Beijing Winter Olympics and other properties NBC Sports has the Spanish-language rights to, but doesn't have a home for. 

Also Read: Peacock Pulls In $500 Million During Record NBCU Upfront

“I’m very happy to have Peacock on the horizon because I think that opens up a lot of opportunity for us,” he said. .

Telemundo will be using the Olympics as an opportunity to promote its full season of Sunday Night Football and the beginning of the World Cup qualifying matches, which will feature the Mexican and American teams.

Warren will be at the games in Tokyo, which is under stringent restrictions because of the surge in COVID-19. Normally more people would go, and sponsors would be there to be entertained. (NBCU has invited advertisers to its Orlando theme park to watch the games). 

“My protocol will be going from hotel to broadcast center and broadcast center back to hotel,” he said. “They’re really trying to protect everyone and control the situation.”

He said he wanted to be on site because it will be easier to make last-minute and late-night decisions and communications with production and technical people. 

Warren recalled attending another tough Olympics in war-torn Sarajevo in 1984. “I’ve been around long enough to know you just put your head down and do your job.”

NBCUniversal said it will have 7,000 hours of coverage of the Tokyo Olympics this summer.

The Olympics will appear on NBCU’s broadcast and cable networks, its digital platforms including Peacock and Telemundo Deportes.

Also Read: Telemundo Upfront: 1,000 Hours of Original Content in 2021-22

“After a devastating year, the world comes together again, finally, in Tokyo this summer,” said Molly Solomon, executive producer and president, NBC Olympics Production. “We are going to deliver the most comprehensive — and accessible — coverage for any sports event in history. The depth and breadth of our broadcasts will be unprecedented, showcasing once-in-a-generation athletes and storylines that will capture the incredible uniqueness of these Games and our times.” 

NBC has been airing but the Summer and Winter Olympics since 2000. In 2014, NBCU, part of Comcast, signed a $7.65 billion deal covering games between 2021 and 2032. (The Tokyo games were supposed to be held in 2020, but were postponed because of the pandemic).

Also Read: NBCU Claims $1B in Olympic Advertising Sales

An NBC Sports spokesperson said the organization has been doing remote production for many Games and already planned for a very significant home operation for Tokyo. "After requests by the IOC and Tokyo Organizing Committee for everyone to reduce their footprint, we moved 300 additional workers home and will now have 1,600 in Tokyo," the spokesperson said. Asked what impact diminished live attendance might have, the spokesperson said "as we have seen over the past year, coverage of sporting events can be very successful even with reduced capacities."

NBC will have 17 consecutive nights over primetime coverage and 250 hours of Olympic programming over all. NBC’s primetime will be live across all time zones, with coverage spilling into late night following local newscasts. Mike Tirico will host NBC’s primetime coverage, will will focus on swimming, gymnastics, track & field, diving and beach volleyball.

The women’s and men’s gold medal basketball games will both air in primetime, on Aug. 6 and Aug. 7.

NBC Sports will also stream more than 5,500 hours of the Olympics on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. All 41 sports and 339 medal event will be streamed, plus the opening and closing ceremonies.

Current plans call for Peacock to have studio studio shows coverage the Olympics. Additional Olympic activity on Peacock will be announced at a later date.

NBCU cable networks USA, CNBC, NBCSN, Olympic Channel and Golf Channel will present more than 1,300 hours of Tokyo Olympic coverage. USA’s coverage starts with the USA playing Sweden in soccer.

The Olympics will be a big sendoff for NBCSN, which is being shut down at the end of the year. NBCSN will televise 440 hours of Olympic programming, more than any other NBCU network, starting with live softball on July 20, three days before the opening ceremony.

Telemundo Deportes, is the exclusive Spanish-language home of the Olympic Games in the U.S. It will have more than 300 hours of programming across Telemundo and Universo.

Both The Today Show and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt will be on site with live coverage. Each morning, Today will bring viewers live interviews with Olympians and provide the latest news from the Games. Each night, Nightly News will profile a member of Team USA, as well as report on all the news surrounding the Games. 

The Games of the XXXII Olympiad will take place July 23-Aug. 8, 2021, in Tokyo.

The honorees in the first class to receive the Rafael Eli Pioneer in Hispanic TV Award have shared their thoughts about what the award means to them personally, and reflections of the man for whom the award is named.  

Rafael Eli was the co-producer of the annual Hispanic Television Summit and a partner at Schramm Marketing Group. He lost his battle with coronavirus in April. He will be remembered on Monday, Sept. 21, during the Hispanic Television & Video Awards ceremony during this year’s virtual version of the summit. The ceremony kicks-off with a memorial video about Rafael Eli’s career, narrated by Cristina Saralegui, the Spanish-language talk show legend. 

Rafael Eli, Hispanic TV Pioneer, Dies of Covid Pneumonia

The summit is a keystone event in Fall TV 2020, a series of virtual events that kicked off Sept. 8 with the News Tech Summit and continues until Oct. 2. Other events during this period are the Advanced Advertising, Streaming TV and Audience Measurement summits. For more please visit the Fall TV 2020 site.

The Rafael Eli awards are presented in three different categories -- media, creativity and talent -- by Broadcasting+Cable and Multichannel News in recognition of individuals who are pioneers in the Hispanic TV industry. The recipients this year had personally known Rafael. They are Andrés Cantor, sports commentator for Telemundo Deportes (talent); Gene Bryan, publisher of HispanicAd.com and CEO of Hispanic Media Inc. (media); and the team of executives at d expósito & Partners (creativity), including Daisy Exposito-Ulla, chairman, CEO; Jorge Ulla, partner, chief ideation officer; Gloria Constanza, partner, chief contact strategist; Fernando Fernandez, partner, chief client officer; John Ross, partner, chief financial officer; Louis Maldonado, partner, managing director; and Paco Olavarrieta, chief creative officer.

Andrés Cantor is Telemundo’s Emmy award-winning voice of soccer, and a veteran television sportscaster, widely known to U.S. fans in both Spanish and English. Originally from Argentina, Cantor got his start while still in high school as a U.S.-based contributing reporter for what was then Argentina’s most popular sports magazine. In the 1980s, at his first television audition, he was required to conduct a live sportscast. The station owner was so impressed with his soccer knowledge, and his enthusiastically inspired “play-by-play,” that he was hired on the spot. Cantor’s recognizable, long-winded “gooooal” made its TV debut shortly thereafter. Today, Andres Cantor is the most recognized voice of soccer in the country and has been featured on multiple TV shows, including a recurring role as himself on The Simpsons.

“I was introduced to Rafael Eli when he was at AT&T and involved with their sponsorship of Major League Soccer. Later, I worked directly with him when he was at Schramm, and promoting international soccer matches,” Cantor said. “I am honored get this award named for Rafael. It seems appropriate. He was a pioneer in soccer marketing, and I am being recognized as a pioneer of soccer television.”

Gene Bryan had already had a long career in Hispanic radio and TVmedia sales when, in 1998, he founded HispanicAd.com, a leading digital publication serving executives in the Hispanic brand advertising and media business. “Rafael and I both attended high school in Puerto Rico.  We had that in common, and our relationship grew from there,” Bryan said. He has had a 20-plus-year commitment to the growth of Hispanic media. He and Hispanicad.com have been strong supporters of the Hispanic Television Summit since the summit’s first year. Bryan continued, “Rafael es mi hermano, he’s like my brother. He would always call to get my suggestions for speakers and the next set of award recipients at the summit.” He added simply, “I am humbled.” 

The team at d expósito & Partners had worked with Rafael starting in 1994 when he first joined AT&T in the Hispanic marketing division. The team then was AT&T’s Hispanic agency as part of Y&R’s Bravo Group. “Rafael made us all better – at what we do, and how we work as a team,” said Daisy Expósito-Ulla. “He was someone who respected and nurtured creative ideas, and he was a heck of a lot of fun to work with.” Her husband and partner, Jorge Ulla, added: “Rafael did what he loved to do.” Their partner, Gloria Constanza, mentioned that Rafael was always focused on innovations in television programming for Hispanics, whether it was the launch of MLS or championship boxing. He “was passionate and committed to the Hispanic fan and often spoke about VOD way back” before it was widely available. The seven recipients from d expósito are unique. They have worked together for over 20 years and have earned a reputation as an award-winning team serving some of the leading brands in the Hispanic market, including AARP, McDonald’s and the U.S. Army to name a few.

The Hispanic Television & Video Awards ceremony, which includes the presentation of The Rafael Eli awards, will be hosted by two leading on-air personalities: Pamela Silva, co-anchor, Primer Impacto, and co-host of Univision’s Aqui y Ahora, and Luis Sandoval, West Coast correspondent for Univision’s ¡Despierta América!. The ceremony is scheduled to start at 12 noon E.T on Day 1 of the four-day “virtual” presentation of the 18th annual Hispanic Television Summit. This year’s summit is being offered free of charge (as a single track in the Fall TV Events lineup) for the first time. To learn more about this year’s event, go to www.FallTVevents.com

Contributed by Joe Schramm, president of Schramm Marketing Group and producer of the annual Hispanic Television Summit.

Telemundo Deportes scored a weekday daytime ratings record Monday afternoon with its coverage of the Mexico-Brazil World Cup Round of 16 tournament game.

The contest, won by Brazil to advance into the international soccer tournament’s quarterfinal round, drew a total audience average of 5.5 million viewers across Telemundo, TelemundoDeportes.com, Telemundo En Vivo and NBC Sports apps, according to Nielsen live plus same day fast national ratings and Adobe Analytics digital data. The TV audience was 5 million during the two-hour match window and 4.4 million for the 9:30-noon ET full coverage, per Nielsen.

RELATED: Mexico Loss to Sweden is Still a Win for Telemundo

Mexico-Brazil ranks as Telemundo Deportes’ third-most watched match of the tournament, trailing only the two weekend Mexico matches in the Group Stage, according to the network.

Through 54 matches, Telemundo Deportes’ World Cup presentation has reached 32.8 million viewers, according to the Spanish-language network.

RELATED: Fox, Telemundo Near World Cup Ad Sales Goals

The ratings come on the heels of the Telemundo Deportes announcement Monday that it has teamed with South America soccer ruling body Conmebol to secure U.S. Spanish-language TV rights for the 46 Copa America international men’s soccer championship.

Mexico lost to Sweden 3-0 Wednesday (June 27) in its finale of the group stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. Still, Mexico advanced to the knockout phase -- and helped deliver the best weekday audience ever for NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo.

The Spanish-language broadcaster posted an average 4.4 million viewers on TV during the two-hour match window and 4 million for overall coverage from 9:30 a.m. to noon ET, it said, citing Nielsen. Adding in web and app views, the match audience rose to 5.2 million viewers, which was the third-best game performance of the tournament on Telemundo Deportes, it said. (Mexico won its first two matches, on weekend days, against defending champion Germany and against South Korea.)

Overall, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the average audience of 2.6 million made for Telemundo's most-watched weekday ever, the broadcaster said.

Read More MCN Coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia

Telemundo also said the 6.9 million livestreams of the Mexico-Sweden match was the most-watched livestream event in Spanish-language history. El Trinext faces Brazil on Monday, July 2, at 10 a.m. ET in what shapes up to be a massive TV event for U.S. Hispanics.

Fox Sports, meanwhile, said Wednesday was the most-watched World Cup matchday 14 since 2006, averaging 1.523 million viewers on Fox and FS1. Fox Sports also enjoyed its best day ever in authenticated streaming with 140 million minutes streamed and 1.8 million unique streamers across all sports, it said.

Brazil's 2-0 win over Serbia drew the day's biggest audience, with a combined linear and digital audience of 2.61 million viewers on Fox and Fox streaming sources. On TV alone, the match drew an average audience of 2.32 million, Fox said. 

The Mexico-Sweden match delivered a combined linear and digital audience of 2.404 million viewers on Fox and digital outlets, per Fox Sports, or about half the size of the reported Telemundo Deportes audience.

Fox said Wednesday was the best day yet of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in terms of streaming, with 135 minutes across the four live matches, shoulder programming and video-on-demand replays.

Fox and Telemundo have U.S. rights to World Cup tournaments through 2026, when the games will be played in the USA, Mexico and Canada.

Pictured, top: Hector Moreno of Mexico fouls Marcus Berg of Sweden inside the box to concede a penalty during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia group F match between Mexico and Sweden at Ekaterinburg Arena on June 27, 2018 in Yekaterinburg, Russia.