Galavision network to be merged into Univision as cable subsidiary.The new president of the Univision Spanish-language television network last week confirmed speculation that the Los Angeles-based Galavision network will be merged into Univision and become a cable subsidiary when Univision is purchased by an investment group led by media mogul Jerrold Perenchio. The investors who are buying Univision from Hallmark Cards Hallmark Cards, a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri, is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. Approximately 50% of greeting cards sent in the United States every year are manufactured by Hallmark. include the owners of Grupo Televisa, the conglomerate that owns Galavision. The sale requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission Federal Communications Commission (FCC), independent executive agency of the U.S. government established in 1934 to regulate interstate and foreign communications in the public interest. , which is expected to take up the issue in December. The sale likely will become final in early 1993. "We will merge the two broadcast units and we will maintain Galavision cable," said Univision President Ray Rodriguez Ray Rodriguez is Cuban-American businessperson and the current president of Univision. Univision Communications (a subsidiary of Broadcasting Media Partners Inc.) • • , who was in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. last week to meet with employees at Univision's KMEX-TV Channel 34 in Hollywood and with Univision advertisers who are anxious about the impending im·pend intr.v. im·pend·ed, im·pend·ing, im·pends 1. To be about to occur: Her retirement is impending. 2. sale. "After we spoke to the employees in Miami (where Univision is based), they stopped being jittery. The employees are seeing there's nothing to be jittery about," said Rodriguez. "With any change in control, people are going to wonder what's going to happen." Rodriguez described Galavision, whose programming appears locally on KWHY-TV Channel 22, as "a surviving company surviving company The company that emerges in control following a business combination. The surviving company is generally one of the firms entering the combination but may be a new company formed by the combination. that will be merged into Univision." Dick Jolliffe, general manager of KWHY, said earlier that if Galavision's broadcast arm was absorbed in the merger, Channel 22 would be transformed into an independent Spanish-language station and would increase its amount of locally produced programming. "The owners of the local Galavision station will still program in Spanish," Rodriguez said. "We'll have even more (programming) for people to choose from." Rodriguez also said that the upcoming move of KMEX and the Los Angeles Univision offices from the Hollywood area into the Howard Hughes Center near Culver City will proceed under Hallmark this fall, as will the labor negotiations between KMEX management and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, or N.A.B.E.T. is a labor union. It began in 1934 when the Association of Technical Employees (ATE) began representing employees in Television, Radio, Film, and Production. union, which were ongoing last week. NABET NABET National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 53 President Dick Smith also said he does not expect the pending sale to affect the negotiations or the contract. Rodriguez said the new owners of Univision will honor whatever lease deals or employment contracts are negotiated under Hallmark ownership. He said Univision's administrative offices in Los Angeles likely will move to the Howard Hughes Center 6701 Tower by Oct. 1, to be followed by the technical operations. Univision, which announced the pending sale two months ago, has been silent since because of "the unsuredness of our former president (Joaquin Blaya)," said Univision spokeswoman Grace Santana. Blaya resigned to work for competing network Telemundo, which is based in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and owns KVEA-TV Channel 52 in Los Angeles. "He (Blaya) said he wasn't happy with the sale," said Rodriguez, who was promoted to president by Hallmark after Blaya resigned. "I think Hallmark got approval" from the new owners on the promotion. Santana said that with the appointment of Rodriguez, Univision once again is in a position to volunteer information about its future. "The insecurities that are brewing are unnecessary," she said. |
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