By Laura Martínez
Hours after announcing the renaming and new identity of TeleFutura as UniMás, Univision last night hosted a star-studded party at the Gansevoort Hotel Rooftop in Manhattan. Chiquinquirá Delgado was the event’s emcee.
Top Univision execs, including CEO Randy Falco and President César Conde were there, but so were many of the network’s content providers, like Pepe Bastón, President of Content and Television at Grupo Televisa and Gonzalo Córdoba, President of Caracol.
More significantly, Patricio Wills, founder and CEO of RTI Colombia, was in attendance. This is an interesting turn of events, somewhat downplayed in the rebranding announcement.
RTI is now one of the programming partners for Univision’s Unimás. But RTI is also owned by Telemundo, which owns 40% of the company.
“This announcement is very important for us at RTI,” says Wills. Through a new agreement with Grupo Televisa, RTI is now producing telenovelas and other series that, in turn, will be shown exclusively on Univision’s UniMás.
Wills was careful to explain that the RTI deal is with Grupo Televisa and “all the screens and properties where they air content.” This, of course, includes Univision. “We are going to be producing stories that travel well and are relevant throughout different markets,” says Wills.
But in Univision’s press release, RTI is clearly identified as a programming partner and “the most successful independent production company in Colombia which produced ‘La Reina del Sur.’”
The release gave big plugs not only to the RTI produced “Reina”, but also to Caracol Televisión’s “Pablo Escobar.” Both series have aired successfully on Telemundo. In fact, “Pablo Escobar” currently airs at 10 pm ET on Telemundo.
RTI will now provide dramatic thrillers to Televisa, which will air on UniMás. Their first offering, “Quién eres tú,” a novela based on Televisa’s “La Usurpadora,” will premiere in January with Televisa talent.
So… it seems like Telemundo will financially profit from Unimás, after all.
Hmm…that is definitely some interesting news. Telemundo profiting from Univision, never thought I would see the day. Thanks for the information Laura…