Federico Lariño, VP of Sports Entertainment at Univision Deportes
Federico Lariño’s main goal in joining Univision Deportes was to use his knowledge of entertainment production –for seven years he took part in the making of Nuestra Belleza Latina– to lead the transformation of República Deportiva and see what other projects they could add to a channel that at that moment was new, Univision Deportes Network.
Lariño entered Deportes invited by Juan Carlos Rodríguez, president of Univision Deportes.
“There was a clear vision that we couldn’t have only sports, assuming that since it was sports, entertainment was included automatically. Sports players are stars, they make commercials, appear on telenovelas. The line that divides sports and entertainment is not as clear as before,” explained Lariño, who has been at the head of Univision Deportes´ new Sports Entertainment division.
República Deportiva was consolidated under his leadership and continues having the audience levels it had five years ago, “which is a lot to say in terms of the industry at the moment,” he expressed. The following project was Premios Univision Deportes, which in 2014 had its first edition and on December 17 celebrates its fourth delivery.
“The Sports Entertainment division was created in 2015 as a way for the company to generate projects and contents for the shows that already exist and are not necessarily related with sports: contests, competitions, series, and specials. This interaction between entertainment and sports has a promising future, regardless of the where it comes out in: we have tested it in digital, awards shows and it works fine,” he ends.
He announced an agreement with Sports Illustrated to be the official broadcaster for the airing of the Sports Person of the Year En Español Award. “It is the first time this show is made in Spanish. It is going to be produced by Sports Entertainment together with Live Events from Univision Deportes. This can be the start of something that takes place every year, depending on how our audience receives it.”
