Emilio Romano

President, Telemundo

By Lindsay Rubino -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/27/2012 12:01:00 AM

The same month Romano took the reins at Telemundo from highly regarded Don Browne, the network acquired exclusive Spanish-language U.S. media rights to the FIFA World Cup from 2015 through 2022 for a reported $600 million.

One of the fastest-growing broadcast networks, Telemundo, in acquiring the World Cup—along with the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) Olympic qualifier events for London 2012—is signaling it’s gunning to be the top Spanish-language net, a title currently held by Univision. Under Romano’s leadership, 2011 marked Telemundo’s best primetime performance ever; it’s on track to repeat the numbers in 2012, with Telemundo delivering its best January yet. Romano also has oversight of bilingual cable network mun2, which like Telemundo delivered its best year in ’11. Romano, who has held leadership positions in Hispanic business sectors his whole career, seems poised to continue the trend.