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In its first November sweeps as a unit of NBC, Telemundo has pulled off some surprising ratings gains in key markets. The No. 2 Spanish-language network's 11 p.m. newscast jumped by triple digits in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In Miami, the program made a double-digit leap.
Just seven months after NBC closed its deal to buy Telemundo for $2.7 billion, executives say the changes they've made at stations around the country-like bringing in new general managers-are beginning to show results.
"It's our first big book," says Jay Ireland, president of NBC Television Stations. "I feel good about where we're poised. We've got the people in place and teams ready to drive performance."
Further to go
But Mr. Ireland will have to shift into fifth gear if he wants to make Telemundo truly competitive. In the general market, NBC is used to being No. 1. On its new turf, NBC is chasing Univision, which has maintained a stranglehold over Spanishlanguage viewing for decades by locking up the best programming.
Univision has the edge in revenues, too. The Telemundo network garnered $559.4 million in revenues for the first nine months of this year, according to research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres' CMR. Univision generated nearly double that figure, at $1.1 billion.
"Univision is so strong, it's hard for Telemundo to gain ground," says Karen Treydte, executive media director for Conill Advertising, the Hispanic media buying arm of Saatchi & Saatchi.
Both Spanish networks are far below general-market...