Grupo Cisneros (Organización Cisneros in Spanish) is a conglomerate of media entertainment, digital media, property investment, tourism development and consumer product companies which reaches 550 million Spanish and Portuguese-speaking consumers in the Americas and Europe. It also provides media content to more than 100 countries. Its current CEO and Vice President of the Board of Directors is Adriana Cisneros.
Cisneros was founded in 1929 in Venezuela by Diego Cisneros as a small material transport business. The company grew rapidly and obtained a license to branch into the manufacture and commercialization of Pepsi Cola carbonated beverages in Caracas. Diego diversified the business in 1961 when he acquired a Televisa television channel which would become Venevision. His son, Gustavo, began his career in media and entertainment operations of the company. In 1970, Gustavo Cisneros assumed the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cisneros (Bachelet, 2004).
The creation of Venevision International (currently Cisneros Media Distribution), which handles the distribution, marketing and production of entertainment content, significantly increased the international scope of the conglomerate’s operations. Cisneros Media Distribution is currently one of the main programming suppliers for Univision, the leading Spanish-language television network in the United States. Parallel to company dealings, Gustavo Cisneros and his wife Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, founded the Fundación Cisneros, a private non-profit organization committed to improving education in Latin America. It supports various important educational initiatives designed to promote freedom of speech, economic development and encourage multicultural understanding.
In August 2013, Gustavo Cisneros appointed his daughter Adriana Cisneros de Griffin as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cisneros. Adriana has spent the last seven years working as Vice Chairman and Vice President of Strategy. During this time, Adriana Cisneros led the company’s expansion into the digital world and e-commerce. She has mainly concentrated on developing the conglomerate within the digital world and e-commerce.
The companies belonging to Cisneros include majority and minority stock interests in several corporations that are managed both directly or indirectly through partnerships, risk-sharing companies or alliances. Cisneros' companies are grouped into the following corporate divisions:
Cisneros' business unit, which includes its television broadcasting, production, content distribution, music and beauty contest companies.
Free-to-air and paid television channels
Venevision:The main and largest television network in Venezuela, Its free-to-air signal covers entire the country.
Venevisión+Plus: A subscription channel distributed internationally that offers 250 hours a month of programming in Spanish which combines the talent and charisma of internationally recognized artists. Venevision Plus is currently present throughout Latin America in its various feeds
VmasTV: Subscription entertainment channel directed to Colombian audiences, with various genres and formats, such as: drama, reality shows, comedy, and contests
VePlus TV (previously Novelísima): A soap opera and entertainment channel with diverse programming such as talk shows, variety shows and comedy programs.
Content and distribution
Cisneros Media Distribution (previously Venevision International): is an entertainment company with more than 30 years’ experience in Spanish content distribution produced by Cisneros and other companies.
Venevision Productions is the largest independent Hispanic production company in the United States. Its programming is distributed internationally to over 90 countries around the world.
Venevision Studios: is a facility for the production of television programming. It has six studios consisting of over 26,000 square meters, digital cameras, digital AES, which has the ability to produce programs for high-definition.
Entertainment and music
Miss Venezuela: Classified as the most successful local company at the international level during the nineties, this company is devoted to highlighting the beauty of Venezuelan women and has transformed Miss Venezuela into one of the beauty pageants with the greatest number of international titles. The Miss Venezuela beauty pageant is now a multimedia event. During the Interactive Gala, the public can vote for their preferred candidate through social media networks. In 2013, the Miss Venezuela contest partnered with CIC Media and Sony Entertainment to create a reality show titled “Todo por la Corona” [All For the Crown] which was broadcast throughout Latin America by Univision. Similarly, in 2013 it partnered with P&G to create pan-regional product an
work with 30 brands.
VeneMusic: A record label belonging to Venevision International, which produces, promotes and distributes Latin music from various genres, including television theme songs from Cisneros TV productions.
Siente Music: A joint venture between Vene Music and Universal Music Latino, the award winning division of Universal Music Group.
A corporate division of Cisneros develops digital businesses for Hispanic audiences in the United States and Latin America. Its business strategy is focused on two main areas: digital advertisement, both online and mobile, and e-commerce. Its main companies are:
RedMas: One of the main Hispanic mobile ad networks and mobile studio. It offers its current and potential clients mobile design and development strategies for building mobile web sites in HTML5 and mobile applications for different operating systems such as Android, IOs, Windows, Symbian and tablets.
Adsmovil: The main mobile publicity network in the Hispanic communications market in the U.S. and the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets in Latin America.
Cuponidad: is a e-commerce website with daily sales offers in Peru and Venezuela. The former Colombian division filed for bankruptcy in 2015.
Cisneros’ real estate division is in charge of developing and positioning the company’s real estate investments which include commercial, industrial and residential properties located in various countries.
Tropicalia: is a tourism real-estate development belonging to Cisneros. It is located in the El Seibo Province of the Dominican Republic. Tropicalia is a long term sustainable project involving thousands of coastal hectares in the southern costs of the Samana Bay.
4. Consumer Products and Services
SAECA Viajes y Turismo: is a corporate level travel agencies in Venezuela. It offers delivery of tickets and traveler assistance in 125 countries, access to the online Sabre reservations system and call center service in the United States, Europe and Latin America.
Laboratorios Fisa: manufactures and distributes personal beauty products and cosmetics in Venezuela. Its manufacturing lines includes hair care, soaps and deodorants, skin care products and fragrances for men and women.
Americatel: Founded in April 1993, Americatel Sistemas de Comunicación C.A. is a long-distance telecommunications company. It offers corporate clients in Venezuela a "trunking" communication service, employing technology developed by Motorola, Inc. that allows a large number of users to share a relatively small number of communication paths. Americatel’s service is currently offered in Caracas, La Guaira, Maracay, Valencia, Puerto Ordaz and Maturín.
The Fundación Cisneros has developed various educational and cultural initiatives, such as:
ACUDE educational program which enabled 1,000,000 people in Venezuela to become literate between 1984 and 1991.
Centro Mozarteum, directed towards youths from all social strata with the mission of enriching musical development in Venezuela by studying and appreciating music.
Cl@se, the first educational channel in Latin America to offer educational programming and teacher training 24 hours a day.
AME program (Professional Development for Educators), an international online network for teaching/learning based on the ICT for promoting training for elementary teachers in Latin America.
Piensa en arte/Think Art, an education platform based on the visual arts. It is designed under the premise that the inherent dialogue between a piece of art and the viewer provides a model for interactive learning and development of critical thinking.
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros currently includes collections of: Contemporary Art, Modern Art, Colonial Art, Travelling Artists in Latin America and the “Colección Orinoco”. This initiative undertakes activities such as: exhibitions, publications, conferences and research and artistic production scholarships.
In addition to activities undertaken by the Fundación Cisneros, each company has programs in the regions where they operate:
Somos lo que Queremos (We are what we want to be), a Venevision campaign designed to highlight Venezuelan attitudes and values and promote peaceful coexistence among citizens. In 2013, this program was recognized as one of the best CSR initiatives by the “Fundación Corresponsables” in Spain.
Mujeres Emprendedoras [Enterprising Women] an initiative created in 2010 together with the Institute of Advanced Studies in Administration (IESA) which instills business skills in women.
Abuelos a bordo [Grandparents on board] a Saeca Carlson and Wagonlit Travel agency program, which offers recreational trips to elderly people in social risk situations.
Miss Venezuela, encourages its candidates to obtain training in CSR, sustainable development, human rights and UN Millennium Development Objectives, as well as getting involved in various voluntary activities.
Leadership training, since 2008, Cisneros has sponsored young Venezuelans to participate in the “Leadership Program for Global Competitiveness, in Miami, Florida.
Voluntarios Solidarios (Caring Volunteers), a corporate volunteers program for Cisneros workers in Miami, Florida
Responsible Tourism, a Tropicalia Foundation program which supports community development in neighboring communities around the Municipality of Miches in the Dominican Republic.
