Luca Bentivoglio has been promoted to chief operating
officer of LATV, replacing Howard Bolter, who this month left the company to
"pursue new opportunities," according to a company spokesperson.
Bentivoglio, who joined the Los Angeles-based network in
2008 as vice president of programming, will now be charged with the day-to-day
operations, including the oversight of advertising and affiliate sales,
programming, business development and production, among other duties.
"This is a great privilege, and a great opportunity,"
Bentivoglio tells Hispanic TV Update.
His position will not be immediately filled.
Two of LATV's current programming executives, Eduardo Marrón
and Luis Cárdenas, will continue to be in charge of in-house productions and
program acquisition, respectively.
A longtime programming executive, Bentivoglio is now also
charged with fostering ties with the advertising community to increase product-integration
deals within the network's programming. An ongoing promotion for Honda via
Hispanic advertising shop La Agencia de Orcí features LATV's L-Flik presenter José Marcelino Ortiz
driving around in a Honda looking for unusual places to watch a film.
Also on Bentivoglio's plate: Continuing LATV's transition
from a bilingual channel to one that will broadcast programming mostly in
Spanish, something the former Telemundo executive considers a strategy that
"makes sense." With national distribution secured via digital multicast, LATV
can now focus on offering an alternative to Univision and Telemundo in Spanish
while its syndicated arm, American Latino, which was acquired in 2008 for an
undisclosed amount, targets the second-generation, English-dominant crowd.
"It's
the best of both worlds," said Bentivoglio. "An ideal combination."
