Shine America Sets Spanish Division

Veteran Colombian TV producer and executive Cristina Palacio has been named president, Shine Hispanic & Latin America, a new division of Shine America that will develop and produce original Spanish-language content for the U.S. and Latin American marketplaces.

A TV executive and producer of scripted, reality, game and documentary series programming across Latin America, Palacio most recently was the founder and president of Colombian-based TV production company BE-TV.

Palacio, who reports to Shine America CEO Rich Ross, will oversee new Shine America offices in both Miami, Fla., and Bogota, Colombia, with programming distributed through Shine International.

“With Shine Hispanic & Latin America we are looking to further develop and distribute both scripted and un-scripted programming to the rapidly growing Spanish-language marketplace,” Ross said. “Cristina’s vast experience in production and distribution make her the ideal person to lead our new team.”

Last fall, Shine America developed its first Spanish-language series Minuto Para Ganar (Minute It Win It) for MundoFox.

Prior to founding BE-TV, Palacio was both VP of development and VP of creative and production for Caracol TV in Bogota. Before she joined Caracol TV, Palacio was Creative Director for Teleset S.A. She got started in the industry producing telenovelas, serving as a writer, director and executive producer on a variety of Latin American scripted series. Early in her career, Palacio also entered into un-scripted programming, producing Spanish-language versions of such series as Pop Stars, Family Feud and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

Palacio earned a B.A. in social communications from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and an MA in media studies from The New School for Social Research in New York City. Palacio will be based out of Shine’s new Miami office.