Yahoo and Telemundo's decision to create, promote and sell a joint Web site has left Fox Sports en Español in the lurch. The sports network previously had an agreement to put its branded content on the sports section of Yahoo's Spanish-language site.
The network’s www.foxsportsenespanol.comstill redirects visitors to Yahoo's site but there is no longer any mention of Fox Sports en Español. The agreement between the two has "lapsed" according to a Fox Sports en Español public relations representative. For now the sports network’s interactive content can be found on MSN in what was described as still a temporary arrangement.
The agreement between Telemundo and Yahoo, which displaced Fox Sports en Español, originated at a meeting between NBC Universal COO Randy Falco and Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig met to discuss possible areas of collaboration. "What started with a macro discussion pretty quickly turned into a discussion of the Hispanic marketplace," said Steve Mandala Telemundo senior VP of sales, marketing and distribution.
"We think this is a situation where 1 plus 1 equals 3. We would never develop our own search, our own mail" said Mandala.
Luis Romero, a Yahoo sales manager in the digital space, will lead sales efforts for the new co-branded property, while Telemundo senior vice president for digital media Peter Blacker will head the content operation. Mandala is expecting the new site to be used by 11 million unique visitors a month.
"We are creating an environment that is relevant to US Hispanics in order to engage them online, offline and on the go," said José Rivera Font, GM of Yahoo North Latin America.
