TeleFutura has made programming changes ahead of the mid-May advertising upfront.
The network has dropped the newscast TeleFutura En Vivo Y En Directo (TeleFutura Live and Direct) and Family Feud-style game show 100 Mexicanos Dijeron, which occupied the 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. weekday primetime slot. In its place, the network is now running movies under the "Cine Especial" title.
The newscast launched last October with much fanfare and was strongly touted by network executives. In a press release at the time, Telefutura senior vice president and operating manager Bert Medina said "This program marks an exciting new era in Spanish-language television."
100 Mexicanos Dijeron has been the subject of a dispute between Univision and Televisa -- the companies co-produce the program. As part of an agreement, Univision reimbursed Televisa for a portion of production costs. According to court documents, Univision claims that Televisa was requesting payment for production costs that were not spelled out or broken down.
The programming change was quietly implemented a month ago and according to network executives has produced a bump in ratings. Network executives expect to make additional new programming announcements at the upfront. TeleFutura has experienced a significant drop in ratings over the last year.
