Some news and trends the Latin Advertising and Media World is talking about this week:
» Emilio Romano to lead Telemundo.
NBC Universal announced that Emilio Romano has been named president of Telemundo effective in October, assuming the role vacated when Don Browne retired in June. In his new position. Romano was the chief negotiator for more than 50 tax and customs treaties related to NAFTA. More recently, 2004-2007, he was the CEO for Grupo Mexicana de Aviación, the airline filed for bankruptcy and ceased operating in 2010. Mexican newspaper website Milenio reports that in the nineties Romano worked for Televisa . Prior work experience also includes Univision, Sky Latin America and Spain’s Via Digital.
» Back to Franco times in Spain?
The Spanish public broadcast network, RTVE, is facing the prospect of more political influence, The Guardian reports. RTVE already has a number of political representatives on its board; these representatives have now made a bid to use their privileged position to gain access to the network's news before it is broadcast. The board decided to vote on this policy because certain members, from the conservative People's party, felt that the news had a pro-socialist bias and that such a bias could not be tolerated in a public broadcaster. The only two board members to vote against the change were two union representatives, as the only two Socialist party representatives abstained for unknown reasons. There was a public uproar and the story is not over yet. Read in tomorrow’s analysis column by our Global Media Correspondent Jose Cervera how the board had to backtrack from its decision due to the immense pressure of outraged citizen on social networks.
» Netflix launches in Latin America and…oversights in the U.S.?
Netflix has launched its service in 40 countries in the region, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. Netflix will invest $70 million in this undertaking over the next few years. The operation will generate losses for the following two years, but is expected to turn a profit from the third year onward, according to CEO Redd Hastings. Problems began for the company in the U.S. when it decided to increase its subscription prices and change its business policy without giving advance notice to its users. This resulted in heavy losses to its subscriber base and a 55% drop in its U.S. merchant capital, compared to the previous period. The situation forced Hastings to publish an article on his blog (“An explanation and some reflexions”) apologizing to customers. Users did not hesitate to respond, posting more than 18.000 comments.
