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a Spanish network
Rosy upfronts for Univision and Telemundo
By Kevin Downey
While most of the talk about this coming upfront TV market is grim, with some analysts predicting flat to declining ad sales, none of the dire forecasts appear to apply to the Spanish-language TV networks.
Market leader Univision and fast-growing Telemundo are not only expected to do well this ad-selling season but will likely enjoy another record year.
Working in both their favors will be the heavily touted 2000 Census figures showing a 58 percent increase in the Hispanic population in the past decade.
"I would expect the Spanish-language upfront to be up. The question is whether it’s 5 percent, 10 percent, or 15 percent," says Gordon Hodge, media analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners.
Univision and Telemundo, however, are approaching advertisers at next week’s upfront presentations with decidedly different strategies.
Univision will focus on its expansion through a new network, set to launch next January, and its fast-growing portal, while Telemundo will tout its success at chipping away at Univision’s dominance.
"Univision has the World Cup this year, plus they are launching a second network," notes Hodge. "That will give them additional inventory to sell and a different audience to deliver to advertisers."
For its part, says Hodge, "Telemundo has had great ratings success and rebounded from a fairly catastrophic year a few years ago." That alone should give it increased leverage with buyers.
Though the Spanish-language market has long been dominated by Univision, Telemundo has increased its share of adult 18-49 viewers from 22 to 28 percent in just the past year.
Also challenging Univision this upfront will be Azteca America, which is launching next month. Azteca America will primarily target Hispanics of Mexican descent. And like Univision, much of its programming will be novelas from Mexico, through a partnership with that country's TV Azteca.
In response, Univision has begun seeking growth outside of its core network.
Its Spanish-language online portal, Univision.com, recently rose to No. 1 among Hispanics after less than a year in operation. And the company formed Univision Music Group last month through a 50 percent stake in Disa Records and a distribution deal with Universal Music.
But its biggest acquisition, and its surest means to generate more advertising revenue, was its purchase of 13 television stations from USA Broadcasting last December.
The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday cleared the way for that acquisition, and it now goes to the Federal Communications Commission, which is expected to approve the purchase before the summer.
The USA stations will make up the starting-off point for the second network.
Though Univision is holding off releasing any details about the new network until its upfront presentation next Wednesday, including even its name, the network will probably be geared toward younger viewers, men in particular, and have sports, news, and possibly music and bilingual programming.
"We will be selling [Univision 2] in the upfront and will start, at launch, at over 80 percent distribution of Hispanic homes," says Tom McGarrity, co-president of network sales at Univision.
"There is a significant amount of Spanish-language viewers who do not watch Spanish-language programs. We know they come in once in awhile. But we want to give them an opportunity to regularly tune in, so we are providing programming that does not exist on Univision or Telemundo."
McGarrity says that programming on Univision will remain largely intact. There will be new novelas, the nighttime soap operas that make up Univision's--and Telemundo’s--primetime, along with specials and sports.
At the upfront presentation, Univision will capitalize on the growing Hispanic population. And the network will promote moving dollars out of English-language networks, a strategy used for several years by the Spanish-language networks.
"We can show people that if they take 10 to 20 percent of their money and shift it to Univision, two things happen," he says. "Their English-language is not negatively affected but, by adding Univision, they increase their total reach."
Univision will offer up multimedia deals with Univision.com as well.
Those so-called cross-platform deals are being pushed in this year’s upfront by virtually all the general-market networks, most of which are now part of multimedia conglomerates.
"With Univision.com, Univision has been announcing it as a unique opportunity to buy both mediums," says Jorge Percovich, general manager of MPG’s Media Planning Diversity, a division of Havas Advertising. "In the upfront it will play a part for some advertisers, but I believe it will be mostly as added-value.
"Univision 2 will have more impact on the upfront because of counter-programming. If you want to reach a younger demo or a bilingual demo, the second network might have something attractive to advertisers that want to reach the entire Hispanic market."
Telemundo, too, will be pitching cross-platform deals to advertisers.
"We are a rapidly growing broadcast network with one cross-platform, which is the relaunching and renaming of Telemundo cable, which was formerly known as Gems," says Steve Levin, executive vice president of sales at Telemundo.
"We will be cross-selling Gems with a newly remodeled programming strategy that will be announced at our upfront."
Like Univision, Telemundo will maintain its programming strategy with few changes.
It will focus, though, on its ratings increases to advertisers next week.
"We will have the largest upfront we’ve ever had," he says. "Ours will grow anywhere between 10 and 18 percent in gross dollars.
"Telemundo has had nothing but increases and our competition has had nothing but decreases."
May 10, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.
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