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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
DIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE 11-2
11. Evaluation of Broadcast
Media
Spanish-Speaking TV Stations Go Mano a Mano
The television industry has grown accustomed to
fierce battles among the major networks for viewers,
as ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox have always gone head-tohead
with one another. However, the fiercest battle
being waged right now in the television industry is the
struggle between the two largest Spanish-language
television networks in the United States—Univision
and Telemundo. The two companies are fighting to
lure the eyeballs of the 35 million Hispanics in the
United States, a market segment that is projected to
grow by 15 percent by 2010. According to Nielsen
Media Research estimates, there are nearly 9 million
Hispanic-American television households in the
United States and about one-third of them speak no
English at home. Language usage has an important
impact on their choice of TV programs, and a substantial
share of viewing in these homes goes to Spanishlanguage
television. Moreover, Hispanics tend to be
younger, have larger families, and watch nearly 10
hours of TV a day, which is about 2 hours more than
non-Hispanics watch.
Univision, which is based in Los Angeles, dominates
the Hispanic market in the United States, as it commands
over 70 percent of the audience watching
Spanish-language TV. The company has 26 television
stations and 32 broadcast affiliates; it also owns
Galavision, which is available to 25 million cable subscribers;
50 percent of Disa Records, the world’s
second-largest Spanish-language record label; and
Univision Online, which recently set up a marketing
pact with America Online. In 2002 Univision launched
the bilingual network TeleFutura, which has captured
8 percent of the estimated 3 million prime-time Hispanic
TV viewers, and purchased Hispanic Broadcasting,
the largest chain of Hispanic radio operations in
the United States, with 55 stations. Programming on
Univision’s core network is full of novelas or soap
operas produced by Mexico’s Grupo Televisa; the
shows are very popular among Hispanics of Mexican
descent, who make up nearly two-thirds of the Latino
population in the United States. Its programming also
includes soccer matches, variety, news, and music
shows.
Univision’s big rival is Telemundo, based in Hialeah,
Florida, which was purchased by General Electric Co.’s
NBC network in late 2001. Telemundo has seen its ratings
rise for the past three years with programming
that includes novelas in prime time and sports,
movies, and comedies on the weekend. In 2002 Telemundo
entered into a three-year deal to broadcast
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
NBA and WNBA games in Spanish. Since it is part of
NBC, Telemundo can promote its shows heavily on the
network, which will also give it the Spanish-TV rights
to other programs such as the Billboard Latin Music
Awards, the Olympics, and Miss Universe contests.
A major part of the war between Univision and Telemundo
is being waged in battles for programming.
Two months after NBC announced its Telemundo deal,
Univision rewrote deals with its two largest suppliers,
Televisa and Venezuela’s Venesision, so that it would
have exclusive rights to their programming. Univision
also signed an agreement with the Brazilian producers
of Telemundo’s hottest show, Betty La Fea (“Betty the
Ugly”), which gives it the rights to the show’s sequel.
Univision is also counting on Telefutura to help it
reach a different audience—the 60 percent of Hispanics
in the United States who are tuned to Englishlanguage
channels. To pull in this audience, Telefutura
will air sports and movies popular with men against
the prime-time soaps on Univision and Telemundo.
Univision is even advertising the new network in
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