Establishment of Latin Emmys Is Heading to Arbitration

The bicoastal family feud between the nonprofit groups that share stewardship of the television industry’s most prestigious honor erupted Thursday over the push to establish a Latin Emmy Awards ceremony, intended to celebrate the best in Spanish-language programming.

Frustrated by the inactivity of its West Coast counterpart, the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences said it will proceed with plans to present the Latin Emmys next year. The organization is seeking arbitration to ensure it can do so, retaining David Boies -- the litigator who led the Justice Department’s suit against Microsoft -- to press its case.

Peter Price, president of the national academy, contends that the rival Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, based in North Hollywood, has engaged in “stalling tactics” to block the awards, leaving him no other recourse.

“This is not a complex issue,” he said, calling the proposed telecast an opportunity to acknowledge “an overlooked area of good professional work,” pointing to large Latino populations -- and commensurate viewing of Spanish-language television -- in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

However, West Coast officials say the matter isn’t that simple.

They cite a variety of concerns -- some raised by Latino media representatives -- including the appearance of segregating Spanish-language fare, equitable judging procedures, the propriety of the name itself, and eligibility of programs produced outside the United States.

Moctesuma Esparza, a producer of such films as “The Milagro Beanfield War,” called the concept of Latin Emmys “wrong-headed” -- unlike the Latin Grammys, which speak to a specific genre of music.

If the academy wants to present Spanish-language Emmys, he said, call them “Emmys en Espanol,” and clearly distinguish them from Latino talent in English-language fare -- such as “The George Lopez Show,” a comedy on ABC.

“This is confusing ethnicity with language,” said Esteban Torres, a former California congressman and chairman of the National Latino Media Council, saying there would never be an “Irish Emmys” or “Jewish Emmys.”

Still, Raul Mateu, a senior vice president at the William Morris Agency who chaired the Latin Emmy organizing committee, called such concerns “much ado about nothing,” saying that the name is merely a working title and that “Emmys en Espanol” is a possibility. The larger issue, he said, is to provide overdue recognition for “the fastest-growing segment of the broadcasting business.”

The dispute has roots that were planted 25 years ago, when the two academies underwent an acrimonious divorce after the Los Angeles group questioned its sister academy’s integrity over membership standards and voting procedures.

Under the agreement, the New York academy oversees Emmys for news, documentaries, sports and daytime programs, while the Los Angeles arm orchestrates the nationally televised nighttime Emmys and Los Angeles-area awards. Because the two share rights to the Emmy statuette, neither can initiate a new national award without the other’s approval, provided it is not “unreasonably withheld.”

Todd Leavitt, president of the western academy, said there is nothing unreasonable about exercising caution, given the issues yet to be resolved -- among them the fact that most popular Spanish-language soap operas, or telenovelas, viewed in the U.S. originate in Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil.

However, Price maintains further delay is unnecessary. The two leading Spanish-language networks, Telemundo and Univision, have agreed to alternate broadcasting the ceremony, he said, and his organization’s board signed off in June.

Alan Sokol, chief operating officer for Telemundo, said the network wanted to mount the awards next fall -- probably in New York or Miami -- but had no desire to get caught in a legal skirmish.

“We would like to do the show,” he said. “Currently, Spanish-language programming is not recognized at all by the traditional Emmy ceremonies.”

The last Spanish-language program to earn an Emmy on the national level, for news, occurred in 1998. Spanish-language broadcasters have fared somewhat better in local balloting, where they face a more level playing field with their English-language competition. In July, for example, Univision station KMEX won the Los Angeles Emmy for best daytime newscast, while Telemundo’s KVEA received an award for investigative reporting.

A spokeswoman for Univision, the most-watched Spanish-language network, declined to comment.

Whatever the outcome, the exchange is a setback to talk of reconciliation between the academies, which was seen as a possibility after John Cannon, the New York body’s longtime president, died last year. The initial split was spurred in part by West Coast criticism of Cannon, who was known to run the academy like a private fiefdom.