CEOInterviews.AICNBC Squawk Alley Cesar Conde 03 15 2018

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Interviewer0:00

Telemundo preparing for the 2018 World Cup, just 88 days away. On the media landscape, and now he's taking on the competition in a crowded space. Cesar Conde, the chairman of Telemundo as well as NBCUniversal International Group. Of course, Telemundo is owned by our parent company Comcast. What a pleasure to have you, sir. Welcome. Thanks, pal. We should point out, I mean full disclosure, we're partners where we work together, but the strides you've made – we'll get to World Cup in a second – against your competitors has been nothing short of remarkable, really.

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Cesar Conde0:32

Well, thank you. It's been a wonderful few years of great growth and momentum for us at Telemundo. To put a little bit in context, the Hispanic consumer opportunity here in the United States is an incredible growth opportunity for any business in any industry. To see this story go from a demographic to an economic story, the purchasing power of Latinos is now exploding over the last few years: 1.7 trillion dollars. If it was its own country, Latinos would be the seventh largest GDP in the world, ahead of India. That evolution has allowed us at Telemundo to really surge. Part of the secret of how we've changed Hispanic media is by really investing and creating high quality, diversified content for this incredible demographic.

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Interviewer1:17

Well, we're in a digital era, so talk about the technology side of what you've been doing. Going audience, I mean everybody talks about how 18 to 34 year olds aren't watching TV anymore, they're on their devices, they're consuming content on these different platforms. How have you used technology to capture and engage that audience?

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Cesar Conde1:32

Well, look, first and foremost, the Hispanic demographic is young, social, mobile, very engaged, so this plays to our strengths. Second, we are creating content across all platforms that speaks directly to this US Hispanic experience in a very unique, culturally relevant way, and that has allowed us to connect. Then ensuring that our content is available to this exploding demographic across all platforms in ways that they want to see it. That's been a big contributor to our success.

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Interviewer2:00

And soccer is, I mean it's not just a big part, it might be the big part in terms of life sports.

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Cesar Conde2:06

Look, for us, we are very proud to be the new and exclusive home of the FIFA World Cup. As you know, soccer for Hispanics and many fans around the world, soccer is like a religion and the World Cup is its cathedral. No event in the world brings together so much passion and so many people around these 30 days. For us, this is coming at a fantastic time in the growth trajectory and momentum of Telemundo.

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Interviewer2:32

This summer we got some news on Russia this week, mostly out of the UK, but Prime Minister May saying she may not send some diplomats or visitors to Moscow. How important is that, or is that a layer of drama the way North Korea was for the Olympics?

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Cesar Conde2:45

Look, I think like the Olympics, the World Cup is a wonderful platform to really bring people together from all countries and focus on the incredible athletics. So we're very, very excited about all the different elements that the World Cup is going to bring.

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Interviewer2:58

Talk to me about the business of World Cup compared to the Olympics or to the NFL which we tend to talk a little bit more about perhaps on this network but to engage that younger audience across multiple platforms, what does an event like the World Cup give you?

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Cesar Conde3:13

Well, look, I'd say a few things. The interest of soccer here in the United States has exploded over the last few years across all ages, demographics, nationalities. Part of what our objective is is to make this as accessible and as relevant for all of those audiences. From an accessibility perspective, you are going to see the most comprehensive coverage from Telemundo ever seen here in the United States across all platforms. From a relevancy perspective, we're trying to do innovative things in our coverage to connect with different folks. For example, we're going to be featuring for the first time a woman calling a World Cup game and in-game commentary, first time that's ever going to happen in the US World Cup. So we're proud of that, and I think that is going to help us connect to these audiences.

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Interviewer3:53

Is your mission to grow domestically or grow the brand internationally? What's much more important?

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Cesar Conde3:59

I think our mission is both. We for the first time achieved an incredible milestone at Telemundo based on the investment and support of our company to become the first number-one Spanish-language network in prime time during the week last year. That was a big milestone for us. But second, our content for Telemundo and our network exists in 40 countries, we distribute our content to 120 countries, and so we want to make sure that that is a global brand around the world.

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Interviewer4:25

What's the role of news with this young consumer today who's consuming across multiple platforms? Some people might remember NBC Universal has this relationship with Snapchat, don't know how that's going, if that factors into you. But how is news moving the needle both from a business perspective and an overall engagement perspective?

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Cesar Conde4:45

Well, news is the most sacred responsibility that we have as a media company and as a journalistic organization. I would tell you that the issues that are being talked about and debated in our country right now are the issues that matter most to Hispanics: the economy, immigration, health care, and safety. For us, I'm so proud of the incredible work that our Telemundo news team is doing. We need to be able to provide all aspects, all angles of these issues so that our community is being educated and they can make informed decisions for themselves and their families.

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Interviewer5:16

Finally, we talk all the time about the influence of streaming services Netflix, Amazon on legacy media. But is the product offering as competitive, would you argue, in Spanish-language or not?

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Cesar Conde5:26

Well, I would tell you what we're seeing is all sorts of ages, not only here in the United States but across the world, that are connecting with Spanish-language content, high premium quality content that speaks to them in a unique way. All the emerging platforms are providing us the ability to not only continue to innovate in the type of content we're doing but also diversify the type of offering that we have for our audiences.

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Interviewer5:50

Certainly crazy times in media, but congratulations on all the success. Can't wait for the soccer to begin.

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Cesar Conde5:56

Thank you. We're looking forward to hosting everyone for Telemundo at the World Cup. Please come back soon.

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Interviewer6:00

Good to see you, Senator Conde. Joining us, of course, again we'd like to note that Telemundo is a division of NBCUniversal Hispanic Enterprises and content owned by our parent company Comcast.