Univision

Univision has come to terms with virtual MVPD provider FuboTV on a broadcast retransmission deal, ending an impasse that threatened to black out channels including the flagship Univision, UniMas, Galavision and TUDN.

Wade Davis, CEO of the just-merged TelevisaUnivision, said 2021 was “the first time in more than 15 years that Univision has grown ad sales sequentially after a political year.”

To be sure, Houston is in a good place these days. The oil industry that fuels the local economy is on solid footing and the region for years has worked to diversify its business portfolio, with the likes of health care, aerospace and the legal profession growing. And the competition among stations for news audiences is robust. ABC owns KTRK and Graham Media has NBC affiliate KPRC. Fox owns KRIV-KTXH, and Tegna has CBS outlet KHOU. Univision owns KXLN and Telemundo holds KTMD.

Spanish-language media giant Univision has agreed to license the ad industry’s Ad-ID advertising assets coding system to identify, track and “significantly improve targeting and delivery” for ads aimed at its Hispanic viewers. The deal follows NBC Universal’s agreement announced last summer, and provides new impetus for the advertising asset management system jointly owned by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers.

Shammas was part of the original team that re-launched WUVG Atlanta for Univision in 2002. It was the market’s first Spanish-language stations. Most recently he was GM of WKTB, the Telemundo affiliate in Atlanta.

The new entity, known as TelevisaUnivision Inc., builds on a previous production alliance created by the companies as they looked to fend off a rising number of rivals aiming at Hispanic viewers in the age of streaming. As of the merger close, the company claims reach to more than 60% of TV audiences in both the U.S. and Mexico. Across television, digital, streaming and audio, the company says its audience is more than 100 million Spanish speakers daily.

Univision Communications has named Michael Schwimmer to the new post of president, global platform strategy and revenue. One of those platforms is the Spanish-language broadcaster’s new unified streaming service that is slated to launch later this year. Univision is in the process of merging with Mexico’s Televisa to form what the broadcasters say will be the world’s largest Spanish-language media company.

Univision has added four new executives to strengthen its streaming team in preparation for the launch of its upcoming two-tiered global platform that is slated to deliver Spanish-language content to 600 million people worldwide. Roger Sole has been appointed chief marketing officer, Vincenzo Gratteri SVP of development, Adam Waltuch SVP of streaming partnerships and Rita Chertorivski SVP of business and legal affairs.

A nearly two-year-old collaboration between Florida International University and Univision puts the station group’s newsrooms a STEP ahead.

Noticias Univision 24/7 is now reporting live on PrendeTV. More than 100 Univision newsroom jobs announced in October have been filled throughout the U.S.

IPG’s Mediahub unit this morning announced a deal with Spanish-language media giant Univision to utilize third-party performance data as a “currency” for ad buys on its media outlets. Describing it as a “first-of-its-kind partnership,” the companies said they would utilize data and analytics from two suppliers — EDO Inc. and DatafuelX — to measure consumer behavior and to “predict engagement performance” for ad campaigns across Univision’s linear TV networks.

Christian Nodal and Olga Tanon, two popular Latino musicians, no doubt thought they were reaching core fans when they agreed to give interviews yesterday to Univision’s recently launched Sunday broadcast of Despierta America. But they were also helping the Spanish-language network make inroads in a weekend-morning news war that has grown increasingly competitive.

They are designed to propel the Spanish-language media company’s local media division into the next phase of growth.

Univision has selected Comscore as its exclusive linear local audience measurement provider for Hispanic TV stations it is acquiring in Washington, D.C., and Tampa and Orlando, Florida. The companies said they will also work together to “refine” Comscore’s measurement capabilities to capture more of the Hispanic audience.

CEO Wade Davis: “We actually grew the auto category” low- to mid-single-digits, “which is pretty remarkable relative to some of the performance of our peers.”

Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications, which late last year sold a majority stake to an investor group led by former Viacom CFO Wade Davis and then agreed to a merger with Mexican TV giant Televisa, reported a big increase in third quarter advertising revenue. The company said on Thursday that its quarterly revenue rose 20.3% to $754.7 million.

Univision will operate two Florida stations — WVEN and WOTF Orlando — and named executive Eddy Elguezabal the president and general manager of its Orlando and Tampa operations. Univision will also take over operations WMDO-CD Washington.

Starting Sept. 15, Univision, UniMás and Galavisión networks are available on YouTube TV. Subscribers in top Hispanic markets, including Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Dallas and Chicago, will also be able to access Univision and UniMás local news, weather and programming.

The appointments come as the Spanish-language service prepares to launch a two-tier streaming service upon the close of the Televisa-Univision merger.

The new team will manage the combined global operations upon the closing of Televisa-Univision merger.

Univision, the Spanish-language broadcaster that is operating under new ownership, has secured double-digit percentage increases in advance advertising commitments for its next programming cycle, the latest traditional broadcaster to benefit from an unusually speedy “upfront” market, when TV companies try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory.

It will feature an expanded free advertising supported (AVOD) and an all-new subscription tier (SVOD) offering, bringing together the best of VIX, Univision NOW and PrendeTV under “a unified global product and vision.” Rodrigo Mazon is tapped as EVP-GM of SVOD. It will be available across U.S. and Latin America next year.

ABC, Fox, NBC, Univision split the win on weak night for Nielsens.

It’s not every day you watch someone stop a truck mid-air, in the middle of a tornado. Albert Martinez, Emmy-award winning chief meteorologist for Univision’s network news, may not be a superhero, but his knack for augmented reality (AR) helps his weather explainers fly off the screen. In addition to that flying truck, Martinez has withstood Category 5 hurricane winds, crashed a car off a bridge, submerged himself in nine feet of dirty flood water, and started a wildfire in the Univision studio. Martinez has his own theory about why his unconventional weather explainers are so popular with viewers.

Univision is planning to build its addressable advertising capabilities, starting with beta tests with Vizio and Dish this year. More partners will be brought on next year, said Donna Speciale, president of advertising sales and marketing at Univision. Univision earlier announced being involved in the beta testing of Nielsen’s addressable technology, since sold to Roku. It also joined Project OAR, a group led by Vizio that looks to set standards for addressable advertising.

The Spanish language television giant is in the midst of significant change. Not six months into new ownership and a new CEO (former Viacom CFO Wade Davis), the company announced a larger merger with the Mexican TV giant Televisa and plans to go global in the streaming video space.

The Spanish-language broadcaster issued preliminary first quarter results that indicates $1.36 billion in available liquidity for “potential financing transactions” around a pending deal to create a Spanish-language media powerhouse.

Univision said it has made a multi-year deal to use products and services from Google to make its media businesses more digital. The deal includes Univision using Google’s cloud to consolidate its multiple digital distribution platforms and run production and data applications. Univision will also take advantage of Google’s Android, Android TV OS, YouTube, Google Play, Google Ad Manager and Google search.

Univision and Televisa have come to terms on a merger agreement, a long-awaited deal that will create a Spanish-language TV giant with broad reach in Mexico and the U.S. The deal calls for Televisa to contribute its media, content and production assets and a handful of networks to a new entity to be known as Televisa-Univision. Televisa’s assets are valued at $4.8 billion. The new company will be led by Univision CEO Wade Davis, who headed the investor group that acquired Univision in early 2020.

Univision Communications says its core media networks’ advertising declined 6% in the fourth quarter to $315.2 million. The company says there was softness in various advertising categories — automotive, media and entertainment, telecommunications, restaurants and financial. All were impacted by pandemic.