Sandra Smester de NBCUniversal
The screen of Universo, the pay TV channel of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, undergoes a transformation starting this month.
“One of the strengths of the channel is sports. We have found a good niche and we are going to make it grow, and give importance to it. Also with dubbed English content, we are going to incorporate more content in Spanish. It is part of our strategy and the changes will take place after March. We will continue betting more on the channel, always giving it its importance,” said Sandra Smester, Executive VP of Programming and Content Development, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.
They added Acércate a Rocío, a show broadcast on Telemundo at 1pm, and on Universo which will be aired at 5pm. Smester highlighted that this show has had a great performance at 3pm for Universo, so they decided to move it to 5pm.
Much more sports will also be included. “We have the She Believes Cup, a women’s soccer tournament, and in the summer there will be the FIFA Women’s Cup on both Telemundo and Universo.”
Smester was also asked about the use of technological resources such as artificial intelligence and virtual production sets. “Access to artificial intelligence will streamline and improve the content development process both in writing and production, the better technology we have, the better we can meet what the audience wants and generate much more efficient data analysis to serve to the community,” she said.
Regarding virtual sets, she explained that they are only using them in segments for now. “We are not creating programs with this technology. That does not mean that in the future, we will. But basically, the way we are working today is segmentation, such as hoy Día, En Casa con Telemundo, La Mesa Caliente, Al Rojo Vivo, and our newscasts. ” She referred to the use of virtual reality during the coverage of the past elections in November 2022. “For me, it was superior thanks to this technology that allows us to have a Telemundo Center,” she said.
She stressed that technology for her has always been complementary. “It is there to help us. We sell emotions when we inform, entertain, offer variety, and sports; emotion is unique to the human being. Artificial intelligence is going to support us and aid us in being a little more creative in developing the story scripts and all of this. I see it as totally complementary, and it comes help lighten the workload and make everything look better. In the end, the content is king. I think it helps to have that information, variety, and entertainment at your fingertips. I don’t think we should be scared, but rather prepare for it and continue to grow, to avoid being left behind,” she concluded.
