MADRID — Valerio Lazarov, a highly successful Romanian-born Spanish TV producer, died Tuesday, the private television channel Telecinco reported. He was 73.

Lazarov died at his home in Madrid from natural causes, the station said on its Web site, citing one of Lazarov's sons. Lazarov was a founding director of the station.

Lazarov was seen as one of the innovators of modern television entertainment in Spain and Romania. He is credited with producing and introducing dozens of popular programs for Spanish National Television, TVE, in the 1970s and for Spain's Telecinco between 1985 and 1994.

His death means "the disappearance of a pioneer in television centering on the spectator," Telecinco said in a statement.

Among his most popular programs were "Passport to Dublin" for TVE and Hostal Royal Manzanares for Telecinco.

In Romania, news of his death was the day's top news story. Realitatea TV said Lazarov revolutionized entertainment television in Romania and Spain.

"Lazarov didn't die ... he became a legend," Romanian TV star Mihai Radu, who worked with him for nine years, was quoted as saying in the daily Cotidianul newspaper.

"He was possibly the most important promoter and modernizer of television" after the 1989 anti-communist revolt, said Alexandru Sassu, director general of Romania Television, the national station.

Lazarov was best known for Romania's most successful entertainment television show "Surprises, Surprises," which ran for nine years on the national television station until 2008.

He was born in the northeastern city of Barlad in one of the poorest regions of Romania. He left Romania in 1966 and went to Spain, where he began working for TVE in 1968. He was granted Spanish nationality in 1972.

He is survived by wife, Augusta Dumitrascu, and three sons.