(pronounced '''Univisión''' in
Spanish ; ) 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 (a merger of the
UPN and
The WB networks planned for
September 2006 ), Fox's sister network
My Network TV (planned to launch at the same time as The CW), its sister network
TeleFutura and top rival
Telemundo . Univision is credited with turning what used to be three separate markets (
Puerto Rican s in the eastern United States,
Cuban-American s in south Florida, and
Mexican-American s in the southwest) into what
Advertisers now consider a 'single, national
Hispanic market'.
Currently with today's large Mexican and Mexican-American audience in
California ,
Texas , and other parts of the Southwest, as well as the fast-growing Mexican population in the 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
Telenovela s 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.
Univision dates its origins to
1961 , when
KWEX began broadcasting to the Hispanic community in
San Antonio, Texas . That station was part of the
Spanish International Network (SIN), Univision's predecessor. It was owned by
Telesistema Mexicano , Mexico's largest private broadcaster and the forerunner of
Televisa .
In
1986 , the
Federal Communications Commission forced Televisa to sell SIN because of federal laws against foreign ownership of American TV stations. SIN was sold to
Hallmark Cards and renamed Univision. Under Hallmark's ownership, about half of its programming was rebroadcasts of telenovelas and other programming from
Televisa , and half was original programming produced in Miami. When Hallmark sold Univision in
1992 , its present owners cut a third of the Miami staff and reverted to a schedule based mostly on Televisa programs.
Henry Cisneros , a former
U.S. Department Of Housing And Urban Development official under President
Bill Clinton , became president of Univision.
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 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 Jerrold Perechino, and the 32-year old head of Televisa, Emilio Azcarraga Jean. The dispute is about Univision's continual
Censoring of Televisa's programming, and failure to pay for transmission of Televisa prodcued 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 also 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 , and news anchor
Maria Celeste Arraras .
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. Other expected bidders are
Time Warner ,
CBS ,
Walt Disney ,
Grupo Televisa of Mexico (under a partnership due to foreign ownership laws),
Bill Gates , and several private equity firms.
Tribune Company has stated that the company is buying Telefutura.
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Univision's shows include:
Univision has contracts with two of its owners,
Venezuela 's
Venevisión and Mexico's
Televisa , to showcase some of their novelas and other shows.
- '' Rebelde ''
- ''Peregrina''
- ''La Fea Mas Bella''
- ''Olvidarte Jamás''
- ''El Amor no tiene Precio''
- ''Mujer...Casos de la Vida Real''
- ''Barrea de Amor''
Univision also shows live
Soccer matches such as the
Football World Cup . Univision has an annual award ceremony, ''
Premio Lo Nuestro '', to honor
Latin Music ians and actors, and recently signed a contract to air the
Latin Grammys , which had formerly aired on CBS.
In addition to the Univision network, Univision Communications owns several other properties. They include:
- The Galavisión cable television network.
- The TeleFutura broadcast television network.
- 21 full-power and 9 low-power television stations that air Univision programming.
- 22 full-power and 15 low-power television stations that air TeleFutura programming.
- 1 English-language television station, UPN affiliate KUVI-TV , Bakersfield, California . That station has been chosen to affiliate with The New CW Television Network when it launches September 2006 .
- 47 Radio Station s throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.
- The Univision and Fonovisa record labels, as well as 50% of the Disa record label.
- Univision.com, a Spanish language Web Portal
