Sunday, May 27, 2007

Telemundo Goes Presidential:



Telemundo Goes Presidential: Offers 2 Debates Among Dems

As last week’s upfront announcements indicated, the leading Spanish-language networks, Univision and Telemundo, plan to take an active role in covering the 2008 presidential election. On Tuesday, Telemundo said it plans to offer two debates among the Democratic candidates.

Translated into Spanish (overlaid, really, as the English will be slightly audible), the debates this fall will be re-broadcast after being produced by NBC, a sibling in the NBC Universal family. Other details will be released later, the network said.

The debates will be hosted by Telemundo news anchor Pedro Sevcec and originate from New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

“Telemundo News’ decision to bring these debates to the U.S. Hispanic audience supports the network’s commitment to educate and encourage the Hispanic community to participate in the 2008 presidential elections,” said network executive Jorge Hidalgo. “This effort is part of our recently announced company-wide, news-driven campaign to promote voter registration among U.S. Hispanics.”

At its upfront presentation, Univision said it’s launching a Sunday morning “Meet the Press”-style news/analysis show, “Al Punto”, partly because of the increased influence of Hispanic Americans on the political process.

Telemundo is launching a similar half-hour show, “Enfoque,” that will include interviews with Hispanic community leaders, along with discussion of topics facing Hispanics in the U.S.

– By David Goetzl

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