Telemundo Hires Talent From Rival

On the same day federal regulators approved NBC’s $2.7-billion purchase of Spanish-language television broadcaster Telemundo, the network Wednesday also signed Emmy Award-winning anchorwoman Maria Celeste Arraras from its chief rival, ratings leader Univision Communications Inc.

The marketing of Arraras’ new show provides a glimpse of the strategy that Telemundo and NBC will employ to take advantage of cross-promotion and programming collaboration between the two broadcasters.

“There aren’t going to be any walls between NBC and Telemundo,” said Andy Lack, chief operating officer of NBC, a subsidiary of General Electric Co.

For the last eight years, Arraras headlined the investigative news magazine “Primer Impacto” on Univision, the country’s largest Spanish-language television network, which is watched by about 80% of Spanish-language viewers. Last month, she announced she was not renewing her contract with the network and immediately went off the air.

Although her hiring by Telemundo is a competitive blow to Univision, more significant is the role she will play in capitalizing on one of Univision’s few obvious vulnerabilities--its absence of an entree into reaching bilingual audiences who move back and forth between Spanish-language and English-language broadcast networks.

“This kind of announcement is exactly what my colleagues [are looking for],” Lack said, adding that he expects to see Telemundo reporters contributing to NBC News programs such as “Dateline NBC” and the “Today” show. “You’ll see NBC and Telemundo taking great advantage of this extraordinary talent.”

Arraras, who speaks Spanish and English with equal ease, will be managing editor of “Al Rojo Vivo con Maria Celeste” (“Red Hot with Maria Celeste”), an hourlong news magazine that will air weekdays at 5 p.m. It is scheduled to premiere April 29.

She also will host “Boletin de la Migra,” a standing feature segment on the show about immigrants and their life in the United States.

The Federal Communications Commission’s approval was an important formality for NBC, which acquired Telemundo Communications Group Inc. in October in a deal that includes 11 TV stations in major cities such as New York, Chicago and Dallas as well as 17 low-power TV stations.

To comply with a federal law restricting companies from owning more than two stations in the same city, NBC will sell Telemundo’s KVEA-TV (Channel 52) in Los Angeles. It already owns KNBC-TV (Channel 4) here and, through the Telemundo deal, also acquired KWHY-TV (Channel 22) and KVEA.

Telemundo was controlled by Sony Corp. and Liberty Media Corp., who each owned about 34% of the network.

Details of Arraras’ multi-year contract were not disclosed, but at Wednesday’s news conference in Coral Gables, Fla., with Telemundo President Jim McNamara and Lack, she said: “I will be paying lots of taxes, but I’ll be making less than Katie Couric,” referring to the “Today” anchor, who signed a $65-million contract with NBC several months ago.

General Electric shares rose 75 cents to $37.20 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Univision shares rose 8 cents to $41.76, also on the NYSE.

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Times wire services were used in compiling this report.