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was losing its juice?
Outpaces Telemundo during November sweeps
By Kevin Downey
It was just months ago that Univision’s dominance in Spanish-language television seemed on the verge of crumbling.
A slew of new competitors were poised to launch, and ratings for long-distant rival Telemundo were on the upswing.
No longer.
In the just-concluded November sweeps, Univision actually increased its primetime audience in the 18-49 demographic by 11 percent, giving it 79 percent of that viewership.
While the network may not command the audience share it once did, its hold on the Hispanic TV audience appears still virtually unbreakable.
So what happened to reverse what many saw as the imminent decline of Univision?
Part of the answer comes down to the realities of the Hispanic marketplace.
While Telemundo is making advances, as will the newer networks, significant gains within the market are not expected to come for awhile.
"My prediction is that the changes are yet to come," says Cindy Gough, senior partner and director of Hispanic marketing at MindShare Los Angeles.
"It is getting more competitive, and the U.S. Census results, which will be parsed out over the next 24 months, will help all the Spanish-language networks. But it will take awhile to see any changes from that."
But the bigger part of the answer is that when Univision is attacked, it attacks back, and a lot harder.
In the past year, Univision struck a deal to buy 13 television stations from USA Networks for the launch of its younger-skewing Telefutura network in mid-January.
Also, in a direct attack on Telemundo, Univision struck production deals with RCN and Radio Caracas Television this year.
In addition to hundreds of hours of programming, the deal with RCN gives Univision the rights to the novela, "Betty La Fea," which previously aired on Telemundo and was largely responsible for that network’s ratings rebound. Univision will begin airing the "Betty" sequel, "Ecomoda," on Sunday.
The show will only strengthen Univision’s schedule.
It already has about 90 of the top-100 shows among Hispanics on Spanish- or English-language television. And it was the No. 1 network, overall, in New York, Los Angeles, and other key markets last summer among adults 18-34.
All of that has made it pretty tough for Telemundo.
While its overall share is increasing because of stronger programming, its adult 18-49 audience is still only one-fourth the size of Univision’s, and it grew by only 8 percent compared to Univision’s 11 percent in the sweeps.
It can report some successes, especially of late.
A World Cup qualifying match between Mexico and Honduras, for example, was watched by 2.7 million people earlier this month, making it the highest-rated show in Telemundo’s history.
Moreover, 1.2 million people watched the Disney movie "George of the Jungle" on Telemundo.
But despite the strong programs, Telemundo’s best hope for chipping away at Univision will come through its merger with NBC.
NBC will give Telemundo and its new Mun2 cable network a much bigger audience to promote its programming to, and it could give those networks access to programming like the Olympics, which NBC has through 2008.
The Federal Trade Commission approved NBC’s acquisition last week and it should easily clear the Federal Communications Commission, which is expected to let the merger go through with minor concessions.
Telemundo is likely to be Univision’s only viable competitor for years to come, despite a lot of talk about new competitors.
One of those networks, Azteca America, was supposed to launch last summer in about 40 percent of Hispanic households but is still only available in Reno, Nev., and Los Angeles.
The lure of new players to the Spanish-language market is strong, though.
Ad-spending on Univision and Telemundo increased by 43 percent in the first half of 2001, based on information from Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
"The Hispanic TV market has been a bit more resistant to the economic downturn," says Gough.
"And there’s certainly a lot more interest, given NBC’s purchase of Telemundo. Spanish-language TV is on everybody’s radar now."
November 29, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.
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