Univision

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Univision
TypeBroadcast television network
Country
 United States
AvailabilityNational; also distributed in Canada and certain other North American countries
OwnerUnivision Communications
Launch date
1961
Former names
Spanish International Network (1961-87)
Official website
www.univision.com

Univision (pronounced Univisión in Spanish; NYSE: UVN) is the largest Spanish-language television network in the United States, and overall, the fifth-largest American network (right behind Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS); and is one of ten major mainstream/commercial broadcast networks in the United States, alongside NBC, CBS, Fox, ABC, i (formerly Pax), The CW, Fox's sister network MyNetworkTV, its sister network TeleFutura and top rival -- NBC-owned Telemundo. It is known to be one of the most Eurocentric channels on cable. Univision has been critized for not displaying the diversity in Latin America.Univision is credited with turning what used to be three separate markets (Puerto Ricans in the eastern United States, Cuban-Americans in south Florida, and Mexican-Americans in the midwest and southwest) into what advertisers now consider a 'single, national Hispanic market'. Univision was recently sold to a consortium led by Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners for $12.3 billion or $36.25 per share plus $1.4 billion in acquired debt.

Currently with today's large Mexican and Mexican-American audience in Chicago,California, Texas, as well as the fast-growing Mexican population in the Midwest, South, and Northeast, many shows — especially the news — cover Mexican issues.

Univision's main competitor is Telemundo. It has maintained a lead in ratings, due in large part to Mexican telenovelas and other programming produced by Grupo Televisa.

Evening news program Noticiero Univision, co-anchored by Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas, has on several occasions out-rated its major network English-language network evening news competitors.

Univision is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, but its major production facilities/operations are in Miami, Florida. It is available on cable in most of the country, and has over-the-air stations in several markets with large Hispanic populations. Most of these stations air full local news and programming in addition to Univision network shows.

History

Univision dates its origins to 1955, when KCOR-TV, later KWEX-TV began broadcasting to the Hispanic community in San Antonio, Texas. That station was part of the Spanish International Network (SIN), Univision's predecessor. SIN was owned by Telesistema Mexicano, Mexico's largest private broadcaster and the forerunner of Televisa.

SIN or Univision's largest rated affiliate, KMEX-TV channel 34 of Los Angeles went on air in 1962 and some experts in the television industry considers KMEX-TV a launching point in the history of American Latino media. In the next 20 years, SIN would acquire other high-rated Spanish language television throughout the Western United States, then expanded the market to Florida, New York City and Chicago, Illinois.

1986 was a pivotal year for the station group and the network. Emilio Nicolas, Sr., President of SICC sold the television station group to Hallmark Greeting Cards and Azcarraga, the owner of SIN changed the name from SIN to Univision. Nicolas's last act as President of SICC was to sign the contracts for two programs that would change the network. Nicolas signed Cristina, now a famous talk show host and Mario Kreutzberger who became the famous Don Francisco of Sabado Gigante. Under Hallmark ownwership and Joaquin Blaya, the first morning television program by the network was launched,Mundo Latino anchored by Lucy Pereda and Frank Moro, who were both Cuban.

In 1988, the network began to produce television shows with a national audience in mind. The first production was titled "TV Mujer" (TV Woman). The program was a magazine styled show aimed to the Hispanic woman living in the United States. Anchored by Lucy Pereda during its first year and Gabriel Traversari, the program consisted of a melange of cooking and entertainment segments. Pereda was replaced shortly after finishing her first year by Mexican Lauri Flores who hailed from Houston, Texas. Flores was not as successful in making the transition and filling Pereda's place and saw her role diminished as the third season came upon the program. A model from "Sabado Gigante" became the third host in its last year: Jackie Nespral, who made the transition from entertainment to news as quickly as the program was cancelled.

"TV Mujer" begat a series of other programs: "Hola, America", "Al Mediodia" before they were all cancelled never really getting the ratings of the original concept.

Univision then decided to expand news programming in the afternoon and launched "Noticias y Mas" with the before mentioned Nespral and a team of three other anchors: Ambrosio Hernandez, Myrka de Llanos and Raul Peimbert. In 1990, Hernandez bolted for the local Telemundo station, WSCV-51 to anchor its evening news programming, being joined by Peimbert shortly after that being wooed to anchor the new Telemundo evening news. Nespral left to join the weekend edition of the "Today" show leaving De Llanos on the anchor desk by herself. Univision had other plans for the moribund show. They revamped it, changed the name, the theme music and installed a weekend reporter to be De Llanos' partner: Puerto Rican born Maria Celeste Arraras who joined the now tabloid news program called "Primer Impacto".

The company's stock has been traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 1996; it became part of the S&P 500 in February 2001.

In 2002, Univision entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Raycom Media to operate two television stations in Puerto Rico: WLII in Caguas and WSUR-TV in Ponce. At the time, WLII had a longtime LMA with another Puerto Rican station, WSTE, which Univision honored. Both WLII and WSUR-TV were sold to Univision in 2005.

In late 2004, a feud began between Univision's chairman, 78-year old Italian entertainment guru A. Jerrold Perenchio, and the 32-year old head of Televisa, Emilio Azcárraga Jean. The dispute is about Univision's continual editing of Televisa's programming, and failure to pay for transmission of Televisa produced sports and specials. The feud has intensified to the point where Televisa's most famous stars have been banned from appearing on any Univision-produced shows and specials. In addition, Televisa has filed a lawsuit against Univision for breach of contract.

In recent years, Univision has also lost several key on air personalities to Telemundo, including long time weekend news anchor Maria Antonieta Collins, tabloid news anchor Maria Celeste Arraras and sports announcer Andres Cantor. Little effect has taken place as it was proved that they were fine with the replacements of these personalities.

Univision previously overtook the now-defunct English-language networks UPN and the WB, now the CW Television Network as the fifth-most popular network overall, and in the 18-to-34-year-old and 18-to-49-year-old demographics it sometimes ranks higher than that. More advertising on TV is targeted toward those age groups than toward any other part of the viewing audience.

On February 9, 2006 Univision Communications confirmed that it is putting itself up for sale. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the News Corporation, has stated that his company is considering buying Univision, but has since backed off that position [1]. Other expected bidders announced were Time Warner, CBS, Disney, Grupo Televisa of Mexico (under a partnership due to foreign ownership laws), Bill Gates, and several private equity firms. Tribune Company was rumored to be interested in buying Telefutura. [2]

Then on June 27 2006, Univision announced that it accepted a $12.7 billion dollar bid from a group of private equity investors led by Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners. The investor group also included Madison Dearborn, Providence Equity and children's television mogul Haim Saban -- founder of Saban Entertainment. This marks Saban's return to broadcast ownership, as Saban (minus partner Shuki Levy) was 50% owner, along with News Corporation, of the Fox Family Channel (now known as the Disney-owned ABC Family Channel). The purchase needs to be given the green light by government regulators and could be consummated by the second quarter of 2007.

However, Univision's shareholders filed two class-action lawsuit against the company and its board members to stop the buyout. One lawsuit claims that the board members structured the deal to only benefit the company's insiders and not the average stockholders. The other lawsuit was filed on behalf of a shareholder identified as L A Murphy, who claims that the board put its own personal interests and the interests of the winning bidder ahead of shareholders, and also failed to adequately evaluate the company's worth. In the meantime, more lawsuits were filed, one against Univision's records division for heavy handed tactics, and the other from a winner of a "Despierta America" $30,000 makeover contest for breaking its own rules and cancelling the makeover right in the middle of it. [3]

Primetime Schedule

News/News Investigation shows are in red; Reality/Game Shows are in green; Primetime Talk Shows are in blue; Telenovelas are in purple.

7:00 PM 7:30 PM 8:00 PM 8:30 PM 9:00 PM 9:30 PM 10:00 PM 10:30 PM
Sunday La Hora Pico Bailando por la Boda de Mis Sueños‡
Monday Duelo de Pasiones† La fea más bella Mundo de Fieras Cristina
Tuesday Ver Para Creer
Wednesday Don Francisco Presenta
Thursday Aqui Y Ahora
Friday Casos de la Vida Real: Edicion Especial (E)
Saturday Casos de Familia: Edicion Especial Sabado Gigante

Shows

Main Article: List of programs broadcast by Univisión

Univision's shows include:

Telenovelas/Other Shows

Univision has contracts with two of its owners, Venezuela's Venevisión and Mexico's Televisa, to showcase some of their novelas and other shows. They are listed by the year in which they first went on the air in their respective countries.

Current Primetime Telenovelas:

  • La Fea Mas Bella (The Most Beautiful Ugly Girl) (Ending Mid 2007)
  • Duelo de Pasiones (Passionate Duels) (As of January 15, 2007)
  • Mundo de Fieras (World of the Wild) (Started October 2006, Ending Early to Mid 2007)

Current Daytime Telenovelas:

  • El Amor No Tiene Precio (Priceless Love) (To End Mid to Late 2007)
  • Acorralada (Corraled) (As of January 15, 2007)
  • Sueño con tu Amor (A Dream Is My Love) (Started November 2006)
  • Las Dos Caras de Ana (The Two Faces Of Ana) (Started December 18, 2006) (Could End Mid to Late 2007)

Coming Soon:

  • La Verdad Oculta (The Hidden Truth) (Starting Early to Mid 2007) (Could replace Mundo de Fieras)
  • Amar Sin Límites (Loving With No Limit) (Starting Mid to Late 2007) (Could replace Duelo de Pasiones)
  • Código Postal (Postal Code) (Starting Late Spring or Early Summer 2007) (Could replace La Fea Mas Bella)

Annual Award Ceremonies

  • Premios Furia Musical (Musical Fury Awards) (Country music awards-style)
  • Premio Lo Nuestro (Our Awards) (Grammys-style)
  • Latin Grammy
  • Premios Juventud (Youth Awards) (Teen Choice Awards-style)
  • Premios TV y Novelas (TV and Novelas Awards) (emmy's-style)

Univision also shows live soccer matches such as the Football World Cup.

Univision’s most-viewed shows

Rank Event Households Year
1 Selena ¡VIVE! 35.90 2005
2 La madrastra 29 2005
3 Rosalinda 30.05 2000
4 Rubí 33.7 2004
5 Amor Real 30.9 2004
6 Rebelde 25.9 2006

Other properties

In addition to the Univision network, Univision Communications owns several other properties. They include:

See also

External links and sources

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