Romina Rosado Streams Big

You could say that Romina Rosado takes a calculated approach to her job — literally. As executive vice president and general manager of Hispanic streaming at NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises — including the new content brand Tplus — she is focused on creating programming for what she calls the "200%ers." The term — a registered trademark established by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises — describes audiences who are 100 percent American and 100 percent Hispanic and flow seamlessly between English and Spanish.

"They're young, fully bilingual and fully imbued in both American pop culture and in their parents' or native culture, whether it's Mexican or Honduran," Rosado says. "They want entertaining content that speaks to both those experiences."

As part of her mission to develop a deep roster of shows across all Telemundo and NBCUniversal streaming platforms, Tplus has three programs set to premiere on Peacock later this year: Love for the Ages, a game show featuring couples bridging the age gap; the comedy drama 'Til Jail Do Us Part following four women whose husbands become incarcerated and the genre-bending crime thriller Leopard Skin about a failed heist that turns into a hostage situation. "Everything is rooted in Hispanic culture, but these are all shows that people who don't speak Spanish can watch," she says.

That kind of broad appeal is the ultimate goal. "No one predicted that a Korean show would become a major hit, even though the vast majority of viewers don't speak the language," says Rosado, alluding to the dystopian survival drama Squid Game. "We want shows that have a broader social currency as well."

Rosado, who grew up in Germany but whose Spanish-born parents sent her to America every summer, brings her own cosmopolitan background to the job. After getting a master's degree in communications at Nebrija University in Madrid, she worked in public relations in London and served as a consultant to the European Central Bank before moving to New York to head up the fledgling digital division at Us Weekly. "I had no idea who Kim Kardashian was, but I made the jump to entertainment because it was an opportunity to build out a legacy brand."

She took up the same challenge at E! News, where she helped expand programming worldwide as senior vice president of global content, and joined Telemundo in 2018 to develop digital news coverage before becoming executive vice president of entertainment and content strategy.

"I've had to be flexible and adaptable, which is a key attribute in the media landscape we're in right now," Rosado says. "The Hispanic audience is varied and nuanced, and we need to go after everyone. I feel pride in the programs we're creating, but the challenge is ensuring that you continue to be their first or second choice. Brands with great content are the ones that survive."