Author and New Age wellness celebrity Deepak Chopra said he has formed a new company, Chopra Global, with investor backing and headed by Tonia O'Connor, the former Univision Communications executive, as CEO and board member.

The company "encompasses a variety of products and services; from digital meditation apps to online masterclasses to live events and personalized retreats at the Chopra Center," Chopra said in a release. O'Connor was president and chief revenue officer at Univision, the Spanish-language media conglomerate, before leaving that role last summer amid an executive overhaul there. Earlier in her career O'Connor was executive VP of Gemstar TV Guide.

Chopra Global investors include Alice Walton, Ray Chambers and Matthew Harris of Global Infrastructure Partners (through his wellness investment fund Avatar Companies), the company said. "The launch of Chopra Global will create a new paradigm in healthcare for the 21stCentury," said Alice Walton. "With her experience in leading a company's commercial evolution, my fellow investors and I are thrilled to have a CEO like Tonia. She has a strong track record leveraging shifting market and consumer dynamics and knows how to capitalize on the exponential growth we are seeing in health and wellness."

"With Chopra Global's new leadership and funding, the company's goal is to scale all of its content and products, while expanding its existing impact through both direct to consumer and enterprise solutions," the release said.

"The name 'Deepak Chopra' is synonymous with the well-being movement and Chopra Global is already leading the industry with omni-channel consumer experiences," O'Connor said in the release.

Univision said Friday that it will reduce its overall workforce by about 6%, part of an effort to make the struggling broadcaster more competitive.

The layoffs, which would number about 240 of Univision’s 4,000 employees, are the latest in several changes at the company. Last week it said it was exploring the sale of its Gizmodo Media Group, which includes several online properties like Gizmodo, Jezebel Deadspin, Lifehacker, Splinter, The Root, Kotaku, Earther and Jalopnik, and The Onion. The Onion portfolio includes The Onion, Clickhole, The A.V. Club and The Takeout. 

A handful of top executives have left the company in the past several months, starting with CEO Randy Falco in March, and followed by chief content officer Isaac Lee and chief revenue officer Tonia O’Connor earlier this month. Falco was replaced as CEO by former Media General chief Vincent Sadusky in June. 

“We have concluded a company-wide strategic review aimed at reorienting our operations to ensure we are positioned to most effectively compete in an evolving media marketplace,” Univision said in a statement. “We are implementing a plan to rejuvenate and reenergize the company with a rededication to our core mission of serving the US Hispanic community. As part of this plan we are both reducing our workforce in various divisions around the company, as well as adding resources and capabilities to strengthen our core business. While it is extremely difficult to lose valued employees, we are confident that our actions – along with our previously-announced process to explore the sale of the Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion portfolio – will enable us to focus on and invest in our core assets, which is necessary to ensure we remain the leading and unwavering voice, advocate and source of information for the Hispanic community.”

The list of top officers leaving Spanish-language broadcaster Univision continued to swell late Monday, after chief revenue officer Tonia O’Connor said she would step down after more than a decade at the Spanish-language broadcaster.

O’Connor is the fourth top Univision executive to leave the company in recent months. In March, CEO Randy Falco announced he would retire and was replaced by former Media General chief Vincent Sadusky in June. Chief financial officer Francisco Lopez-Balboa also stepped down in March, shortly after Univision said it would abandon plans to go public.  Earlier this month chief content officer Issac Lee said he would step down and start his own production company. 

O’Connor has been with Univision for more than 10 years, and has played a key role in growing the company from three networks to 17 broadcaster, cable and digital networks. A Multichannel News Wonder Woman in 2009, O’Connor has steadily moved up the ranks during her career at the broadcaster.

Univision has struggled along with other broadcasters and has been running a tight race with Comcast’s Telemundo, which outbid the broadcaster for Spanish language rights to the World Cup through 2026. Univision, which has relied heavily to telenovelas to fill out its programming lineup, has been losing some ratings ground to Telemundo’s slate of action series, mini-series and reality programming 

“For more than a decade, Tonia O’Connor has been a key figure in transforming Univision from a niche media asset into a major player in the U.S. media landscape,” Univision’s board fo directors said in a statement. “We greatly appreciate her leadership and the important role she played in driving the company’s growth, negotiating complex transactions and developing new revenue streams. We thank her and wish her well and continued success in her new endeavors.”

O’Connor led UCI’s efforts to expand the reach of its portfolio of brands and content availability by creating new consumer products and securing valuable shelf space with both traditional and emerging distributors, and social media platforms. She established UCI’s content licensing business and built Univision’s distribution revenue stream.

O’Connor also launched the Company’s direct-to-consumer live streaming and on demand subscription video service, Univision NOW, as well as the development of the Univision Creator Network. She also led the industry’s first experiential upfront with UCI’s Culture Unbound earlier this year, demonstrating an innovative approach to brand positioning.

“Univision is a uniquely positioned company, unlike any other brand,” O’Connor said in a statement. “I am incredibly proud of helping transform Univision into a media powerhouse – with the most loyal audience and billions in enterprise value. I will always treasure my experience and colleagues from Univision, which I will carry with me as I take on new challenges and continue to make an impact.”

Rita Ferro

Title: President, Ad Sales, Disney/ABC Television Group
Broadcast Network: ABC
2017 Upfront Sales: $2.1 billion.
Outlook: America’s Network is using a “Forward Together” theme to reinforce that Ferro’s team has a portfolio that includes ABC, Freeform and the Disney Media kids business. But with the “Disney Difference,” it can include other Disney units, from films to theme parks, in campaigns. Disney also just announced the launch of Luminate, a suite of advanced advertising products that will be used by both the Disney/ABC networks and by ESPN.

Joe Marchese

Title: President, Advertising Revenue, Fox Networks Group
Broadcast Network: Fox
2017 Upfront Sales: $1.6 billion
Outlook: Marchese is looking to innovate the heck out of the TV ad business. He said his goal was to get Fox’s ad load down to two minutes per hour by 2020. The first place he’s targeting is Sunday night, when each commercial pod will have just two 30-second spots. How much will advertisers pay for that uncluttered environment? We’ll see. Marchese is also pushing six-second ads, which seem to fit particularly well in live sports.

Tonia O’Connor

Title: Chief Revenue Officer, Univision Communications
Broadcast Networks: Univision, UniMás
2017 Upfront Sales: Not available
Outlook: With Telemundo hot on its heels, Univision is rolling out a number of new initiatives in time for this year’s upfront. Univision this month unveiled Aperture, a suit of data-driven advertising products that include precision targeting, a selfserve campaign builder and Campaign Impact, which help evaluate a media buy’s effectiveness. Aperture also features Fokal, an analytic firm that helps drive results across data sets. To reach younger viewers, Univision has made deals to produce projects with Snapchat, Facebook Watch and PopSugar.

The 2018 Upfront: Sales Execs Claim Strong Hand Going Into Upfront | Buyers Want Better Measurement, But Will Use Old Metrics in Upfront | Levy Wants 5% of TV Ad Budgets Spent on Audiences | The CW Brings a New Night to the Market | Pitching Hispanic Buying Power | Broadcast Networks Take Center Stage

Jo Ann Ross

Title: President and Chief Advertising Revenue Officer, CBS
Broadcast Network: CBS
2017 Upfront Sales: $2.5 billion
Outlook: Never better, according to CBS’s ebullient chairman and CEO Les Moonves. No longer stodgy, CBS has been a pioneer in the over-the-top and subscription businesses and Ross said advertisers are interested in CBS All Access, CBSN and CBS Sports HQ. Last year, Ross added digital sales to her portfolio, with former Facebook exec David Lawenda, now executive VP of digital sales and strategy, reporting to her. CBS has also set up CBS Eye Max, a unit devoted to ad innovation and creating branded entertainment with clients.

Rob Tuck

Title: Executive VP, National Sales, The CW
Broadcast Network: The CW
2017 Upfront Sales: } $500 million
Outlook: The CW is an early adopter in monetizing digital viewership, a key for a network that attracts young (for broadcast) viewers. Its convergence sell has been copied by other broadcasters to capture eyeballs glued to mobile phones, iPads and other connected devices. This year adds a new night of primetime programming (see related story), creating the opportunity to generate more advertising revenue.

Linda Yaccarino

Title: Chairman, Advertising Sales and Client Partnerships, NBCUniversal
Broadcast Networks: NBC, Telemundo
2017 Upfront Sales: $6.5 billion*
Outlook: NBCUniversal will kick off Upfront Week on May 14 with a presentation that covers its entire portfolio of broadcast, cable and digital opportunities for advertisers. Yaccarino has been pushing an advanced advertising agenda and this year helped give the audience buying business a boost by joining Fox, Turner and Viacom in the OpenAP consortium. NBCU also launched CFlight, a new metric that measures on air and online impressions. * NBCU upfront revenue across broadcast and cable.

Univision Communications announced that Steve Mandala will become president of advertising sales and marketing, succeeding Keith Turner, who recently announced plans to retire at the end of the year.

Mandala, who had been executive vice president for sales at Univision, will report to Tonia O’Connor, who earlier this week was named to the new position of chief revenue officer.

“Steve is an exceptional media industry leader whose reputation for being effectual and original precedes him,” O’Connor. said “His unique sales and marketing acumen and strong leadership have been instrumental in delivering UCI’s engaged audiences to our advertising partners across the portfolio. We are delighted to have Steve at the helm of our sales team to continue to foster existing relationships as well as introduce new ones to UCI.”

Mandala will oversee advertising sales and marketing for Univision’s array of media offerings, including the Univision Network, UniMás, UCI’s cable networks including Galavisión and UDN (Univision Deportes Network), as well as Local Media and Digital. As he transitions into the role, he will work closely with Turner.

“I am honored to lead our remarkable UCI Advertising Sales and Marketing team as our industry and our company continue to rapidly evolve,” Mandala said. “I have the utmost respect for the company’s ubiquitous, valuable brand and the service it renders to our growing audiences. As the industry continues to evolve and diverse audiences, including U.S. Hispanics, influence our country and culture, UCI will provide unparalleled experiences for advertisers to interact with these consumers.”

Mandala had been executive VP of cable entertainment ad sales at NBCUniversal before rejoining Univision in 2012.

Multicultural-themed programming is riding a wave of ratings and critical success on TV, but that rising tide isn’t lifting all boats.

From Emmy Award-winning shows like Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and its multicultural cast, to ratings hits like Fox’s Empire, Starz’s Power and ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat and Black-ish, ethnically diverse TV content is hot. But even in such a TV climate, executives at independently owned multicultural networks said their services still struggle to gain widespread distribution.

Even with a growing base of multicultural subscribers who watch more hours of television than white viewers — along with an increase of young, multicultural millennials who are either cord-cutters or cable-nevers — distributors aren’t rushing to sign up networks that target the industry’s current and future subscribers, executives said.

“Overall, 40% of the population is multicultural, so what all that means is multicultural is now the new mainstream,” said Tonia O’Connor, chief commercial officer and president of content distribution for Univision Communications, which also handles distribution duties for four-year-old, male-targeted El Rey Network and young, Hispanic audience-targeted news service Fusion.

“It’s good business to be in this business,” O’Connor said. “Whether distributors have come to embrace it yet or not, they absolutely have to in order to continue to have any growth in the future — they can no longer ignore the multicultural consumer or opportunity.”

A HOT CATEGORY

While most television observers recognize today’s lineup of quality content from cable, broadcast and over-the-top digital services like Netflix as a new Golden Age of Television, it’s also arguably the most prolific time for multicultural programming.

This comes as the U.S. grows more diverse, and as diverse groups grow more influential determining in how and when entertainment content is delivered.

African-Americans watched more than 44 hours of live and time-shifted TV a week during fourth-quarter 2015, well above the 31-hour average for all adults, according to the recent Nielsen Total Audience Report. Hispanics nearly double all viewers in minutes spent watching video on smartphones, while Asian-Americans use multimedia devices to view television nearly a full hour more than the general public does.

Given those realities, the assumption would be that multichannel-video providers would be aggressive in launching networks aimed at the growing, highly influential multicultural audience. But network executives said some distributors have yet to recognize the value of multicultural content.

Most high-profile shows with appeal to multicultural audiences air on mainstream networks backed by major media companies, Africa Channel executive vice president of content and global operations Narendra Reddy said, adding that independently-owned multicultural channels don’t have the budget or staff to develop and market such programming. But that doesn’t mean Africa Channel’s scripted movies and reality shows originating from the continent are any less valuable or appealing to multicultural viewers, Reddy said.

He added that most favored nations language in contracts, restrictions on social-media marketing and promotion of content on the Web, and a lack of negotiating power during contract talks have hampered Africa Channel’s ability to gain distribution as an independent network.

“Even if the heads of programming for these various distributors believe that this content that we have will resonate with audiences, basically they’re forced to carry networks from the companies that have far greater leverage than we do,” Reddy said.

That doesn’t sit well with multicultural viewers who respond favorably to content targeted toward them. According to a recent Horowitz Race, Diversity and Media survey, 64% of multicultural millennials said they found television shows featuring a mainly multicultural cast appealing, compared to 44% of white viewers.

Yet beyond a few select shows, network executives say such images are rare on the current lineup of cable channels.

STILL AN UNDERSERVED AUDIENCE

“A multicultural cable subscriber today sees his or her dollar being mainstream, but the reality is when they look at what’s being offered they’re seeing that there’s just not that much there,” said Mark Walton, president of sales and marketing for One Caribbean Television. “Even though you may see an article or some conversation around all of this, from the consumer’s perspective it gets back to ‘I have 500 channels and I only have four or five that are addressing some of the interests I have.’ ”

One Caribbean Television, which offers entertainment, news and weather content from such Caribbean nations as the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica and Barbados, is currently offered on RCN with the network in distribution talks with several other operators. One Caribbean targets the nearly 10 million to 20 million African-Americans who have some connection to the Caribbean, as well as mainstream viewers who travel and have interest in the region.

“The consumer is paying X dollars but is getting X minus dollars in terms of value to them,” Walton said. “In order to breach that gap and reduce churn, you have to have the offerings that that consumer wants.”

Network executives said they recognize that MVPDs are under pressure to curb programming costs and adjust programming packages to prevent younger subscribers from churning or shifting to over-the-top subscription VOD services.

“[Distributors] might not be as confident to take risks on launching multicultural-themed channels,” Miguel Santos, general manager for Asian-American targeted network Myx TV, said. “The business environment is di_ cult — they’re seeing some churn, so it’s making a lot of MVPD executives risk-averse. They don’t really see at the moment the value of multicultural channels.”

One executive who said she does recognize the value of multicultural content is Verizon Fios executive director of content strategy and acquisition Michelle Webb. She told the Horowitz Associates Cultural Insights Forum in March that the telco is looking to balance that with finding the best ways to offer the most choice to consumers.

“It’s all about managing demand and bandwidth considerations,” she said.

Aspire TV has seen some small but noteworthy movement on the distribution front, vice president of business affairs and channel operations Melissa Ingram said. The African-American-targeted network, founded by basketball hall of famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson, has seen its subscriber rolls grow to 34 million viewers since its 2012 launch; it projects it will be in 37 million homes by year-end.

“Not only is [the multicultural] audience is requesting this type of programming but … from a business standpoint, affiliates are starting to understand the importance of having diverse content,” she said. “They’ve seen the success of shows like Empire and they’ve seen a movement by subscribers demanding such content, which is forcing these large distributors to understand the importance and value of it and to get more content like that on their systems.”

As networks continue to push for linear distribution, others are exploring the Web in an eff ort to generate interest and awareness for their brands. Networks such as Myx TV, Fuse and One Caribbean Television use apps to give viewers a chance to check out video content from the networks, as well as some live programming.

BOOSTING ONLINE REACH

“If you want to reach a younger audience, you have to be available on all of the relevant devices, and you have to have content that’s available on-demand,” Fuse Media CEO Michael Schwimmer said. “Obviously, you have to be able to balance that with the network’s role within the pay TV ecosystem, but I think that it’s all doable and important. Anybody that doesn’t have a strong digital presence does so at their own risk.”

Myx TV’s Santos believes networks targeting multicultural millennials in particular may find online distribution a more attractive way of exposing the brand to key audiences. Asian-Americans, especially, tend to watch content online on various mobile devices, so anyone looking to reach that audience would fare well in the digital space, according to Santos.

Myx TV is considering launching an OTT service in the near future, although Santos would not disclose a time frame. “OTT is possibly the key to diversifying entertainment,” he said. “Given the competitive environment and the uncertainty within the industry, it would behoove us to look at all options to really get our content out.

“In the end, the power is with the viewer, and they will decide where they want to watch their content — if they want to watch it over the top we should be there, and if they want to watch it on a linear platform we should be there, too.”

Univision Communications Inc. said it has hired Eric Ratchman as executive vice president, content distribution. He joins from The Walt Disney Co., will be based in New York and reports to Tonia O’Connor, chief commercial officer and president of content distribution for UCI.

“Eric has more than a decade of experience in global content distribution strategy and business development. His background and expertise will add tremendous value as we continue to expand UCI’s growing portfolio of brands accessible anytime, anywhere,” O’Connor said in a release. “Eric will play an integral role in evolving our relationships with both new and longstanding distribution partners and will be instrumental in negotiating critical distribution agreements for UCI’s stations, networks and content.”

Ratchman most recently served as senior vice president of global distribution strategy and business development for Disney Media Networks. Notably, during his tenure at Disney, he negotiated the first carriage of Disney’s networks on an OTT basis with SlingTV, Univision said. Before joining Disney in 2005, Ratchman worked at Accenture and Abbott Laboratories . 

Univision recently signed new distribution agreements with Atlantic Broadband and Mediacom Communications but has an ongoing tiff with AT&T over U-verse carriage. Univision stations and networks are back on U-verse while the two sides continue negotiations.

Tonia O’Connor has been promoted to chief commercial officer and president of content distribution at Univision Communications. 

In her newly created position, O’Connor -- a 2010 Multichannel News Wonder Woman -- will remain based in New York and will continue to report to CEO Randy Falco. 

Under O’Connor, Univision has been putting greater emphasis on diversifying its portfolio of assets by bringing together its corporate development and enterprise groups under one Enterprise Development unit. This unit will focus on enhancing Univision's market position to help incubate and launch new products and businesses.

O’Connor will also continue to be responsible for content distribution, including online and mobile, as well as creating new business models with emerging outlets. 

“Tonia is an innovative leader and influencer in our industry, who has played an essential role in expanding and deepening our relationships with both new and longstanding partners," Falco said.

Read more at broadcastingcable,com.