After a three-year relationship between Telemundo and Yahoo!, the two companies will part ways with the coming of the new year. On Jan. 1, 2009, Telemundo will re-launch its website at Telemundo.com (Currently it is a channel on the Yahoo! portal), and will enter into a new deal with MSN, which will include distribution of the new Telemundo.com through MSN Latino and other International MSN portals, as well as use of MSN video technology and ad serving.
So how does this affect Telemundo’s digital offering? According to Danny Allen of Think Multicultural and Admixture, that question is answered on a few key points: “An important question is which company will get the traffic from users who type in ‘Telemundo.yahoo.com.’ Whoever gets that residual traffic will be in a better position than the other.”
Who’s Content is King?
Another issue is that of content production, according to Allen. “If Yahoo! was doing most of the content production and just slapping Telemundo’s logo on there for branding purposes, then it will be less difficult for them to move forward. If, on the other hand, Telemundo was doing the heavy lifting in terms of content production, then Yahoo would have to rely more heavily on some of its Latin American content to fill that void.”
It remains to be seen whether the new Telemundo site will be a stand-alone, a development that Allen notes would be positive for long-term branding purposes. “In the broader context, it will be interesting to see if this is a step toward establishing themselves as a portal like Univision.com,” says Allen.
Telemundo is currently a leading player in web video consumption with over 10,000,000 streams monthly. The combination of MSN video technology with Telemundo's original programming is designed to drive Hispanic video web consumption higher.