Viacom’s Telefe Sees Top Exec Moves

Courtesy of Vimn

Argentina’s Telefe has undergone an executive reshuffle in the aftermath of its $345 million acquisition by Viacom in November.

Viacom Int’l Media Networks (VIMN) Americas unveiled a new management team at Telefe as Tomas Yankelevich has opted to leave his post as the company’s global content chief  to “pursue other opportunities.”

Telefe will now be co-led by Guillermo Campanini as its Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Dario Turovelzky as the new SVP of Global Content.

“The combination of [Campanini’s] robust trajectory in the commercialization and operations of channels alongside [Turovelzky’s] experience and innovation in production and programming will drive the growth of Telefe and our other brands in the country,” said VIMN Americas president Pierluigi Gazzolo.

Turner confirmed in a statement Thursday that it is in conversations for Yankelevich to take up a senior management position in Turner Latin America as part of a policy of “attracting the best talent in Latin America.”

A 20-year TV vet within the industry and in Telefe, Campanini’s purview as COO will include ad sales, content distribution, news, management, corporate services, finance, technology and operations.

Turovelzky will oversee the programming and content development of Telefe and Viacom’s other brands in the Southern cone region, including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and the Paramount Channel.

In a nod to Yankelevich, Gazzolo said: “[Yankelevich] has been key to the growth of Telefe over the past six years during which he put together a great team in the content división to spur Telefe to its position today.”

The new executive team also includes Paula Guerra, formerly a general manager at VIMN Argentina the past 10 years, who will handle content distributiion for all the Viacom brands as well as legal affairs, human resources, corporate relations, trade marketing and corporate communications.

Gustavo Capua will oversee the áreas of finance, technology, facilities and operations. Claudio Ipolitti remains as head of Telefe News and Fernando Varela expands his current responsibilities as Telefe’s Director of Legal Affairs to include Viacom Argentina.

Telefe boasts a 33% share of Argentina’s TV auiences and produces 3,000 hours of original programming per year. Its pay TV service, Telefe International, is present in 17 countries. It also owns 12 production studios and a library of 33,000 hours of content that is distributed in 100 countries and in 35 languages, operates eight regional channels across Argentina and runs streaming services that include a news operation and digital venture U-Play.