Former Telemundo president and CEO James McNamara will join premium Spanish-language film channel Cine Latino with the title of nonexecutive chairman, the company said Thursday.
The channel is co-owned by MVS Television and private-equity firm InterMedia Partners, which acquired one-half of the company last year. McNamara also acquired an equity interest in Cine Latino, which claims 3.5 million U.S. cable and satellite subscribers and 2 million more in Canada and Latin America. MVS Television is a subsidiary of a Mexico City-based corporation.
McNamara will be responsible for overseeing programming, distribution, marketing and finance, but the current management will remain as it is, in Mexico City, which may account for McNamara's ambiguous title.
Simultaneous with the McNamara announcement, Cine Latino named a chief financial officer, creative director and public-relations director to strengthen U.S operations. McNamara said he will spend only part of his time with Cine Latino. He also owns his own movie company, Panamax Films.
McNamara said Thursday that he helped bring together MVS and InterMedia. With a presence on most cable and satellite Spanish tiers, he added that CineLatino has "a world of unrealized potential." Ad-free, it derives income from cable or satellite operators.
McNamara ran Telemundo from 1999-2005, during which time it was acquired by NBC, now NBC Universal. After he left, he began Panamax Films.
