Hispanic media companies continued to aggressively target advertisers this week with some major announcements from Fox Hispanic Media executives kicking off Wednesday’s upfront presentations.

Fox Hispanic Media, part of News Corporation, is composed of four Latino-focused networks: FOX Deportes, FOX Life, Nat Geo Mundo and MundoFox. Executives focused the bulk of their presentation on sports programming at Fox Deportes and MundoFox, the newest Spanish-language network in the United States, which made its debut last summer. Fox Life focuses on programming for women and Nat Geo Mundo produces family programming.

The theme of the presentation was offering new “real choice” to Spanish-speaking American Latinos and the advertisers that want to court them. Hernan Lopez, the president and chief executive of Fox International Channels, called out the network’s competitors, including Univision and Telemundo, noting that “the share of viewership to the challengers has increased by 60 percent.”

Tom Maney, the executive vice president of advertising sales at Fox Hispanic Media, described “a very complicated media landscape” where consumers are inundated with thousands of advertising messages a day. Fox Hispanic Media networks offered advertisers “more choice and options for your media investment,” he said.

Unlike Univision, which focused on its general market competition at its upfront presentation Tuesday, Fox executives focused on their Spanish-language competitors (Mr. Lopez even took a jab at some of their logos, which, like MundoFox, have the color red in them.) Emiliano Saccone, the president of MundoFox, acknowledged the network faced “challenges” but did not mention its dismal ratings. “There’s bound to be a learning curve,” he said.

The network is a partnership between Fox International Channels, owned by the News Corporation, and RCN Television in Colombia. The programming Mr. Saccone presented relied heavily on scripted dramas, many produced by RCN, including a third season of “El Capo,” a thriller about a drug trafficker. Other shows included “Amor con Angel” (“Angel of Love”), a romantic comedy produced by Sony about a young woman whose spiritual guide is Cantinflas, Mexico’s most famous comic actor, who died in 1993, and “El Capitan” (The Captain”), about a Mexican man who built a wildlife park in his country, which was produced by FoxTelecolombia.

Mr. Saccone also announced “El Factor X” a Spanish-language version of “The X Factor,” which will be produced by FremantleMedia. The television personality Mario Lopez and the boxer Oscar De La Hoya, who were both present at the event, announced they would co-produce a show called “Los Golden Boys” which would highlight the lives and careers of boxers. Earlier this year, the network announced it would begin filming the popular game show “Minuto Para Ganar” (“Minute to Win It”) in New York.

At a presentation for NuvoTV, a cable channel that seeks Hispanic viewers whose primary language is English, executives announced that Jennifer Lopez would serve as chief creative officer for the channel, which plans to begin offering new shows on July 18.

Ms. Lopez’s role builds upon a long-term agreement that she and her production company, Nuyorican Productions, made with NuvoTV in September, when it was announced that she would become a partner with the channel in areas like programming, creative development and production. Ms. Lopez took a minority stake in NuvoTV for undisclosed financial terms.

Ms. Lopez’s role “is nothing like lip service,” Michael Schwimmer, chief executive at NuvoTV, said in a phone interview on Wednesday before the presentation. Rather, he said, her duties in realms that include “brand, brand direction, on-air look and feel,” along with “some noncreative areas like distribution and ad sales” that are real and substantive and not a stunt.

The goals of working with Ms. Lopez include generating “buzz around the network,” Mr. Schwimmer said, and to create “a magnet for other talent” to work with NuvoTV, as well as to have her appear in a consumer marketing campaign.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/business/media/media-companies-aim-to-woo-advertisers-and-latinos.html?partner=rss&emc=rss