Univision

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Infobox Network Univision (pronounced Univisión in Spanish; Template:NYSE) 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 Ricans in the eastern United States, Cuban-Americans in south Florida, and Mexican-Americans 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 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.

Contents

[edit]

History

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 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 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. [1]

[edit]

Shows

Univision's shows include:


[edit]

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.

  • 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 musicians and actors, and recently signed a contract to air the Latin Grammys, which had formerly aired on CBS.

[edit]

Other properties

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 stations 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
[edit]

See also

[edit]

External links and sources

Template:Broadcast Television

Template:Univision Communicationses:Univision fr:Univision

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Univision"