Yahoo Telemundo Portal Caters to Hispanic Market

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), NBC Universal Television Group and Telemundo said Wednesday they will combine their U.S. Hispanic Web sites to form a co-branded Internet business.

Dubbed Yahoo Telemundo, the new Internet property will integrate Yahoo services with Telemundo content, and will replace the existing sites of Yahoo en español and Telemundo's Telemundo.com.

Merging Mediums

Telemundo President Don Browne, NBC Universal Television Group COO Randy Falco and Greg Coleman, executive vice president for Yahoo global sales , made the joint announcement.

Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo and Telemundo.com will merge staff and share advertising revenue, but neither company will make any equity investment in the other. Luis Romero, a seasoned sales manager in the digital and broadcast space, will lead sales efforts for the new co-branded property.

"This merger provides us with an excellent platform to position Telemundo for the future," said Falco. "Our partnership with Yahoo is a win-win deal for both sides that will drive more hits to the site and ultimately expand our capabilities."

A First Time for Everything

This agreement marks the first time that a national Hispanic television network will partner with an established Hispanic online service to provide the best of both online and broadcast media content for users and advertisers.

The companies expect the partnership to create a richer online user experience, adding Telemundo's cadre of original programming across sports, music, entertainment and other content to Yahoo en español's online tools and services, including Yahoo Search, Mail and Messenger, among others.

"By combining the services Yahoo is known and loved for with Telemundo's content, we will provide the most comprehensive experience for U.S. Hispanic consumers and extend both companies' strong position in U.S. Hispanic media," said Coleman. "Additionally, Yahoo Telemundo will provide an unbeatable platform for advertisers to reach the largest and most engaged U.S. Hispanic community online, on-air and on the go."

Integrated Advertising Opportunities

Yahoo Telemundo will tap into new advertising technologies with original programming to create uniquely integrated media campaigns that will enable advertisers to reach U.S. Hispanics all in one place, the companies said. This will also enable marketers to promote their brands, products and services through a combined offering that already captures the largest online U.S. Hispanic audience -- more than 11.5 million strong.

"This partnership is a natural evolution of the larger strategy Telemundo and its digital media team have been developing during the last eight months, a strategy that is strongly anchored on providing relevant original programming to the U.S. Hispanic consumers through multiple platforms," said Browne.

Yahoo Telemundo plans to enhance and create more engaging user experiences around Telemundo's on-air programming by integrating personalization, communities and user-generated content. The new entity will also include content offerings tailored to first, second and third generation U.S. Hispanics through Spanish-language, bilingual and English-language content sections.

Jose Rivera-Font, general manager, Yahoo North Latin America, called the merger a game-changing deal that will reshape the U.S. Hispanic Internet business as we know it -- in terms of user engagement, customer value and monetization. "Yahoo Telemundo will provide the kind of cross-media interaction that will deliver an integrated and immersive media experience for both users and advertisers," he said.

Tapping Into a Neglected Market

Hispanic consumer spending accounts for more than US$580 billion each year and is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2008, according to Comscore. Yet the Hispanic market is largely neglected by the major players, said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.

"Yahoo can tap a market where there is no intrinsic brand affinity, and Telemundo gets the advantage of having a partnership with the number one site on the Internet," Sterling told TechNewsWorld. "This brings Yahoo's infrastructure and expertise to Telemundo's brand and market reach in the Hispanic community."

Does the merger deal have implications on the search marketplace? Perhaps, Sterling predicted. If a sizable number of Yahoo Telemundo users migrate to Yahoo's search services, it could offer the company an incremental gain that results in meaningful advertising revenues.

"The revenue opportunity in capturing this market is a big deal," Sterling noted. "This could have a positive net affect on search for Yahoo."