By Leila Cobo
Marking the continuin shift towards the role of music for the organization, Univision Communications has created a new music division, appointing Jorge “Pepo” Ferradas as its president. In the newly created position, Ferradas will be responsible for developing an integrated music strategy covering all music efforts across the company’s many platforms. Various music events — the Latin Grammys, Premio Lo Nuestro and Premios Juventud among them — in addition to Univision’s regular programming on its several channels. Ferradas will also work closely with Univision’s radio programming team, an indication of how broad the scope of his position is. He will be based out of New York and report to Isaac Lee, Chief News and Digital Officer for Univision Communications (UCI) and CEO of Fusion, the news/lifestyle channel Univision owns with ABC.
That Univision was poised to take a deeper interest in music was hinted at in November when Lee, already the CEO of Fusion and president for news and digital, was promoted, adding multicultural and music to his oversight.
Now, the launch of a dedicated music division would appear to be a major first step raising the company’s musical profile and taking better advantage of its many platforms to promote music.
Equally important, in appointing Ferradas as the president of the division, Univision tapped a highly respected executive that doesn’t come from the television world. Through the years, however, Ferradas has developed deep ties at all levels of the entertainment industry — television included — and has extensive experience in virtually all aspects of the music industry.
Ferradas was most recently svp of touring at Live Nation, overseeing Shakira’s global rights management. Prior to that, he was managing director of Global Talent Service (GTS), Universal Music’s live entertainment and management division. The Argentine-born Ferradas also worked for many years in the label world, including as president of Sony Music Sur, which includes Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.
“With his wealth of knowledge and experience across all parts of the music industry, there is no better candidate than Pepo to lead the growth of the company’s music strategy,” said Lee in a statement.
“I am committed to the role and importance of continuing and expanding UCI’s development, promotion and creation of new opportunities for music artists,” said Ferrdas, also in a statement. “I am confident that because of Univision’s brand, reach and team, we have tremendous potential to be one of the most important players in the music business globally.”
Source: Billboard
