The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on Tuesday announced nine new Spanish-Language categories for the Daytime, Sports, and News & Documentary Emmy awards.
The new Daytime categories include Outstanding Morning Program in Spanish, Outstanding Entertainment Program in Spanish and Outstanding Daytime Talent in a Spanish-Language Program.
The Sports categories are Outstanding Live Sports Coverage in Spanish, Outstanding Studio Show in Spanish and Outstanding On-Air Sports Talent in Spanish.
News & Documentary categories include Outstanding Newscast or News Magazine in Spanish, Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in Spanish and Outstanding Investigative Journalism in Spanish.
"The Spanish-language community will welcome this acknowledgment with open arms," said Linda Giannecchini, committee cochair, NATAS. "With our 19 regional chapters seeing more than 800 Spanish-language entries in 2013 alone, the time is upon us to bring this powerful media community the true recognition that the National Emmy Awards confers."
Giannecchini and NATAS Awards committee member Chiqui Cartagena helped develop the task force that created the new categories.
"We drew together very passionate members from throughout the Spanish-language community of media companies and talent agencies to come up with recommendations to reflect what we call the new American reality," Cartagena said.
Entries for the new categories will not need to provide subtitles and will be judged by a panel of Spanish-language media professionals proficient in Spanish.
"The growth of Spanish-language media over the last 50 years has been very closely followed by our organization," said Malachy Wienges, chairman, NATAS. "American television is changing at a rapid pace driven by the growth of multicultural audiences who often speak more than one language. The Spanish-language media continues to grow exponentially each year, and NATAS believes it is long-overdue that we recognize its excellence in our industry."
