Josè Pretlow and Gloria Medel have been named chairman and president of production, respectively, at Voy Pictures Television.
VPT is a newly created subsidiary of Voy, a lifestyle and entertainment company focused on the English-speaking Latin market and founded and chaired by Fernando Espuelas.
Voy will need the new production arm to help program its start-up cable network, also called Voy. The company is currently in talks with "major" MSOs about carriage and expects to announce deals soon, said a spokesman, but has yet to set a launch date.
Pretlow and Medel have already been shepherding pilots for Voy, both the company and the proposed cable network, as independent producers. Pretlow has produced a pilot talk show, Go (the English translation of "voy") hosted by Espuelas and targeted for syndication
Pretlow will oversee VPT’s programming efforts, producing shows for syndication, cable and network, while Medel will head up VPT’s day-to-day production and development.
Pretlow has worked in television for 20 years, serving as a producer on Donahue, senior producer on The Sally Jessy Raphael Show and executive producer of The Geraldo Rivera Show and Leeza.
Medel’s background is in producing music programming for TV. From 1998 to 2003, she was at Sony Music Television’s Automatic Productions, coordinating projects for public television, TNT and A&E. She also co-produced Showtime’s The Original Latin Kings of Comedy, featuring George Lopez, Cheech Marin and Paul Rodriguez.
She became an independent producer in 2003, producing videos and TV specials including the 2003 and 2004 MTV Video Music Awards Latin America.
