Sandra Smester de NBCUniversal
The countless hours of live programming, the innovation in reality shows, the sports content, and the quality of dramas, are some of the reasons expressed by Sandra Smester, Executive VP of Programming and Content Development, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, as key elements keeping Telemundo’s screen relevant, fresh and competitive compared with other media.
“Today open TV plays a very unique role that streaming is unable to fulfill. For me these platforms are complementary, it is not a matter of competition. In our case, we bring many hours of live TV, sports, and variety, which makes us different and has greater content control. Live TV is available more easily,” emphasized Smester, who has been a true believer in live TV for many years. “This is what sets us apart from the platforms, being with the audience and talking to them locally.”
For Smester, linear TV has the value of reliability. “It usually happens that after reading news on Twitter or Facebook, you have to recur to TV to check if what they are saying is true.”
“Being under the wing of NBC helps us a lot in terms of innovation. Our campus and studios are incredible, and the care we give to the screen is extremely important. It’s part of the respect we’ve for the audience. At the end of the day, innovation must be embedded in the content. I’ve always said, a good set doesn’t give you ratings, but it helps to look good. It’s about focusing on the content, and always trying to create that unique content, which is the DNA of Telemundo. Telemundo has done very well in innovating reality shows,” she pointed out.
She announced that by the middle of the year, there will be a surprise. “Something incredible, never seen in Latin America, is coming. We will be seeing it on the screens of Telemundo this summer. We are working very hard to ensure to make it happens and that we can be irreverent within our formula. That is the wonder of being on Telemundo and creating on Telemundo: the irreverence, the uniqueness and not being so encapsulated in melodrama, which we have and it’s number 1 on TV, El Señor de Los Cielos. And we are doing a very good strategy with Telemundo Global Studios: this March we have two telenovelas from our catalog El Señor de Los Cielos and Juego de Mentiras, released on March 7 at 10pm”.
Smester, who joined Telemundo on August 16, expressed feeling comfortable working in the US Hispanic market.
“It is a market that I know very well. The biggest challenge is with myself. I am very competitive. I like to be at the forefront. Always be in the mind of the audience, from which I’m also a part, I consume the product and I know it very well and I respect the audience. I think that’s the challenge with myself and how I do it,” she pointed out.
Her priorities are the programming strategy of both Telemundo and Universo and expanding. Also to search for new innovative content and ensure that the content available is working and continues to work, as the case with La Casa de Los Famosos. “The third season broke records in the premiere compared with the previous seasons. So when it is said that open TV is not growing, at this moment Telemundo is showing otherwise”, she stated.
