Making Magic in Miami: Showbiz Execs Reflect on City’s Dedication to Hispanic Community
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Miami, home to the two leading U.S. Hispanic networks — TelevisaUnivision and Telemundo — as well as a host of smaller television companies, studio outposts, recording artists and independent entertainment companies, has long been the cultural epicenter of both Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic population.
“It is not just the geographic location that makes Miami a hub: In so many ways, the city is also representative of the cultural diversity across Latin America and among all U.S. Hispanics,” says Karen Barroeta, executive VP, production and development, Telemundo Global Studios, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.
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“On top of its rich cultural diversity, Miami is a world-class city in which to make television, with the highest quality production studios and a skillful workforce including incredible talent, from production teams to writers and actors,” she says.
“Telemundo built roots in Miami because we believe in the growth and power of the Hispanic community and see Miami at the core of that explosive growth.”
Proof of Telemundo’s commitment to Miami is its $250 million. state-of-the-art facility boasting 13 studios, 48 open edit bay work stations and seven control rooms, allowing it to produce news, sports, scripted and unscripted entertainment, as well as digital content all under one roof, says Barroeta.
“Telemundo Center represents one of the largest investments in a broadcast facility in South Florida history, delivering over 3,000 hours of content a year and housing over 1,300 employees year-round across corporate and creative roles.”
Among its multiple productions: Miami-based “Armas de Mujer” (“‘Til Jail Do Us Part”), filmed and developed in-house at Telemundo Center, and shot in 47 locations across the city.
For TelevisaUnivision, formed in January 2022 by the merger of U.S. Hispanic giant Univision and its Mexican counterpart, Televisa, its Miami headquarters is operationally integrated with La Fábrica de Sueños, or Dream Factory, Televisa’s studios in Mexico, “enabling a seamless and efficient production process,” says Ignacio Meyer, president, Univision Television Networks Group at TelevisaUnivision.
The merger led to a combined Spanish-language content library of more than 300,000 hours of programming and an extensive portfolio of IP and sports rights.
“Miami is a key source of best-in-class talent, know-how and resources. We leverage this to attract the right talent and build strong teams to create and produce both national and local entertainment, live music, reality and news shows with culturally relevant content that authentically resonates with our audiences,” he adds, listing such hit shows as the “Latin Grammy Awards,” “Mira Quién Baila”
and “Enamorándonos.”
“The influence of Miami and South Florida is felt globally, so no matter where a project originates, it is very likely that many of the projects we develop, produce, program and promote draw inspiration, vision and creativity from Miami and South Florida,” Meyer says.
While Telemundo and TelevisaUnivision have their in-house crew and deep resources to offset the lack of incentives in the state, film companies don’t have it that easy.
Florida offered financial incentives to the film industry starting in 2004, but that ended in June 2016 when the state’s legislators decided the incentive program failed to deliver an adequate return on investment. Some also felt it wasn’t right to give financial incentives to
private businesses.
“Since the incentives have disappeared, a lot of productions and crews have gone elsewhere,” says Billy Corben, director of the “Cocaine Cowboys” franchise who, along with his producing partner Alfred Spellman at their unscripted production company Rakontur — (a play on the word raconteur) — has continued to plumb Florida for its rich and colorful story material.
The good news is that Miami-Dade county offers a TV, film and entertainment production incentive program, which provides grants to projects that shoot the bulk of their project in Miami-Dade County, and hire and pay a living wage to Miami-Dade residents, says the county’s first female mayor, Daniella Levine Cava.
“Additionally, the board of county commissioners recently passed a resolution sponsored by [county commissioner Sen. René] Garcia to create the high impact film fund program to attract major television series and motion picture productions and enhance the economy, and to identify and allocate sufficient legally available funds for the program,” she says.
“The content creation industry has a long history in Miami-Dade County that dates to the early 1900s. The industry continues to grow as the entertainment sector expands with the advent of new technologies that are fostering more creative content.”
Spellman says, “Our first documentary, ‘Raw Deal: A Question of Consent,’ premiered at Sundance in 2001. At the time, we were the youngest [age 22] filmmakers ever invited to Sundance and the first ones from South Florida. Our film was very controversial and got a lot of attention, and when the agents and managers asked us if we were moving to Los Angeles, we said we wanted to return home. Just as Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese tell New York stories, we wanted to tell Miami stories so that’s how we ended up staying put.”
Corben adds: “Miami has an untapped resource of characters and stories. There’s a saying I’m very fond of, ‘Los Angeles is where you go when you want to be somebody, New York is where you go when you are somebody and Miami is where you go when you want to be somebody else.’ ”
Spellman concurs: “It’s always been a place for shady people.”
Since 2000, Rakontur has been producing a slew of documentaries and non-fiction series and shorts, mostly about Miami and Florida. The first film in their “Cocaine Cowboys” franchise, about the rise of the coke trade in Miami during the ’70s and ’80s, was distributed theatrically by Magnolia Films and won an Edward R. Murrow Award. Their documentary “God Forbid,” about the sex scandal that took down evangelist Jerry Falwell Jr., is the most-watched doc on Hulu.
Meanwhile, Miami Beach’s residents voted to approve a $159 million general obligation bond that will go toward the revitalization of arts and culture in the city, says Miami Beach mayor Dan Gelber. “This will allow us to create new venues and invest in a pretty extensive upgrade of our cultural profile,” he says, adding that Miami Beach will also improve all its parks and create 88 acres of parkland.
With regard to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his policies, Gelber says: “We try to ignore him. He’s only interested in stoking the culture wars, which we’re not really interested in.”
“Our focus is on creating valuable and engaging content for our audiences — creating shows that bring them together and deliver special moments,” Meyer says. “We keep an eye toward the future and watch for trends and opportunities that will best serve our business and our audiences.”
The more immediate challenges include skyrocketing real estate prices, climate change-induced floods and for Miami Beach, an influx of close to 15 million visitors a year for a town with some 385,000 residents. Not to mention a giant mass of seaweed said to be approaching Florida’s coastline.
“Miami-Dade County is at the forefront of the housing and climate crisis, but we are also at the frontlines of innovative solutions to these challenges. We are working to make Miami-Dade County affordable, resilient and future ready,” Levine Cava says.
Despite some drawbacks, “The sun still shines 300 days a year,” Spellman says.
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