Univision Radio Logo

Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes telenovelas and other drama series, sports, sitcoms, reality and variety series, news programming, and imported Spanish-language feature films. Univision is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and has its major studios, production facilities, and business operations based in Doral, Florida (near Miami).

Univision is available on pay television providers throughout most of the United States, with local stations in over 60 markets with large Latin American communities. Most of these stations air full local newscasts and other local programming in addition to network shows; in major markets such as Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City, the local newscasts carried by the network's owned-and-operated stations are equally competitive with their English-language counterparts ratings-wise. Chief operating officer Randy Falco (who was appointed to the position on January 18, 2011, and officially took over as CEO on June 29 of that year) has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva in April 2011. In March 2018, it was announced that Falco would be retiring and stepping down as CEO.

History

Beginnings as Spanish International Network

Univision's roots can be traced back to 1955, when Raúl Cortez started KCOR-TV, an independent station in San Antonio, Texas, which was the nation's first Spanish-only TV outlet. The station was not profitable during its early years, and in 1961, Cortez sold KCOR-TV – now known as KWEX-TV – to a group headed by Mexican entertainment mogul Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, owner of Mexico-based Telesistema Mexicano (the forerunner of Televisa). Cortez's son-in-law Emilio Nicolás Sr., who helped produce variety programs for the station, held a 20% stake and remained as KWEX general manager for three decades. The new owners helped to turn around the station's fortunes by heavily investing in programming, most of it sourced from Telesistema Mexicano.

On September 29, 1962, Azcárraga and his partners launched a second Spanish-language station, KMEX-TV, in Los Angeles. KWEX and KMEX formed the nucleus of the Azcárraga-owned Spanish International Network (SIN), created in late 1962. SIN was the first television network in the United States to broadcast its programming in a language other than English. From 1963 until 1987, SIN was managed from offices in New York by Rene Anselmo, a U.S. native who had worked for Azcárraga in Mexico City for eight years as head of Telesistema's programming export subsidiary. Having supervised the launch of KMEX, Anselmo spearheaded SIN's expansion, first into the New York City area, when it founded WXTV in Paterson, New Jersey (licensed in 1969 and launched in 1972 as KFTV), and then by acquiring WLTV in Miami in 1971. That year, Azcárraga and his partners incorporated these five stations (separately from SIN) as the Spanish International Communications Corporation (SICC), with Anselmo named as president.

Over the next 15 years, SIN and SICC would create other top-rated Spanish-language television stations throughout the United States; these included KTVW in Phoenix and KDTV in San Francisco (both owned by Anselmo) and a part-time affiliation with WCIU-TV in Chicago. The Mexican ownership interest in SIN and SICC transferred posthumously from Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta to his son, Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, in 1972. On July 4, 1976, the network began distributing its national feed via satellite, which originally was delivered as a superstation-type feed of San Antonio's KWEX-TV, before eventually switching to a direct programming feed of SIN, allowing cable television providers to carry the network on their systems at little cost. Between the mid-1970s and late-1980s, SIN began affiliating with startup Spanish-language stations in markets such as Dallas– Fort Worth ( KUVN) and Houston (KXLN), as well as with independent stations that previously broadcast in English.

In Chicago, SIN moved its programming from WCIU-TV to new full-time affiliate WSNS-TV in July 1985. After WSNS was sold to Telemundo in 1988, what had become Univision moved its programming back to WCIU-TV, which agreed to air Univision programming on weekday evenings and weekends. In 1994, the network purchased English-language independent WGBO-TV after WCIU-TV turned down Univision's request to become a full-time affiliate in favor of maintaining its longtime multi-ethnic programming format. WGBO-TV became an Univision-owned station on December 31, 1994.

Relaunch as Univision

1987 became a pivotal year for the Spanish International Network and its owned-and-operated station group; in 1987, Nicolas sold his stake in the network to a partnership of Hallmark Cards and Televisa for 25 years, which formed Univision Holdings Inc. to operate the network and its stations. The Federal Communications Commission and SIN's competitors had long questioned whether the relationship between SIN and the Azcárraga family was impermissibly tight. Both the FCC and other Spanish-language broadcasters had long suspected that Televisa was merely using Nicolas to skirt FCC rules prohibiting foreign ownership of broadcast media.

The FCC and the U.S. Justice Department eventually encouraged a sale of the network to a properly constituted domestic organization. Spanish International Communications ultimately began discussions with various prospective buyers, culminating in Hallmark Cards (which owned a 63.5% interest), private equity firm First Chicago Venture Capital (which acquired 21.5%) and several other private investors (which collectively owned the remaining 15% held in a trust) purchasing the SIN stations for $600 million, while forming a new relationship with Televisa for the distribution of programs; the new group also adopted a new name for the network, Univision.

The first reference to the new Univision name was in "América, esta es tu canción", a song interpreted by Lucerito on her 1982 album '' Te prometo''. The lyric that mentions the network is "cantaremos al mundo fantástico mágico de Univisión" ("we'll sing to the fantastic, magical world of Univision").

The initial logo under the Univision name Spanish International Network, that was used from 1987 to 1989; the logo was similar in resemblance to Televisa's station logo. Televisa still uses this logo today.

Joaquin Blaya, the network's new chief executive officer, would sign agreements to carry two programs that would change the face of the network. He signed contracts to develop programs hosted by Cristina Saralegui (who became the host of the long-running talk show '' El Show de Cristina'' ("The Cristina Show"), which aired on the network for 22 years) and Chilean-born Mario Kreutzberger – better known as Don Francisco (who brought his popular variety series ''Sábado Gigante'' ("Giant Saturday") to the U.S., which aired on Univision for 29 years until its cancellation in September 2015) – for the network. Univision also began production of its first morning program, ''Mundo Latino'', which was anchored by Cuban natives Lucy Pereda and Frank Moro; Moro left the network to move to Mexico to continue his career as a soap opera actor, the network then brought in Jorge Ramos to replace him.

To appeal to Hispanics and Latinos of all nationalities, the network soon instituted a policy of maintaining neutrality with its use of Spanish dialects, slang and humor on its domestically produced programs, enforcing program producers to limit the use of humor and slang relatable only to a specific Hispanic nationality. It also prohibited the use of English in its programming or advertisements (outside of product titles and dialogue featured in film trailers), most obvious in the use of Spanish equivalent placenames such as "Nueva York" rather than New York. In 1988, Blaya also substantially ramped up production of American-based programs on Univision's lineup, reducing the share of programming imported from Latin America (most of which came from Televisa) on its schedule. With this, the network began producing programs for a national audience in mind, resulting in Univision's schedule consisting of 50% foreign programming and 50% U.S.-produced programming.

The first such program, ''TV Mujer'' ("Woman TV"), was a magazine-style talk show aimed at American Hispanic females – originally hosted by Pereda and Gabriel Traversari – featuring a mix of cooking and entertainment segments. The following year, Pereda was replaced as co-host by Mexican-American Lauri Flores, who previously served as director of programming, promotions, special events and public information at Houston affiliate KXLN-TV – where she also hosted a local community affairs program, ''Entre Nos''. During Flores' tenure as host of ''TV Mujer'', the program remained the #1 daytime show on Spanish-language television, outperforming its competition in its time period by 33%. Telemundo's ''Dia a Dia'', which debuted prior to the premiere of ''TV Mujer'', saw its ratings diminish as a result. ''Sábado Gigante'' model Jackie Nespral was added as host of the program for its final year on the network; she was originally hired to serve as a fill-in co-host while Flores went on maternity leave, before becoming a full-time host during the show's final season. ''TV Mujer'' inspired a series of other programs, including ''Hola, America'' ("Hello, America") and ''Al Mediodia'' ("At Noon"), which never garnered the ratings of the original concept and were ultimately canceled.

However, the network's fortunes began to wane following the Hallmark purchase, when Televisa terminated its programming agreement with Univision, taking along with it the company's popular telenovelas. The network opted to replace the Mexican-produced serials with novelas produced in South America; however, viewership for its telenovelas declined with the programming shift. To make matters worse, with limited revenue from advertising, the sale to Hallmark left Univision with a huge debt load to cover. On February 1, 1990, Univision Holdings disclosed that it had failed to make an interest payment of about $10 million (totaling about $3 million to be paid to its bank lenders and about $7 million to holders of its junk-bond debt) that was due a day prior as part of its efforts to restructure its debt, citing insufficient cash flow for the missed payments. At the time, Univision had owed about $315 million to a group of banks led by Continental Bank of Chicago, about $135 million in senior subordinated zero-coupon debt and $105 million in 13 3/8% in outstanding subordinated debentures.

On March 30, Univision filed a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to seek Chapter 11 creditor protection and financial reorganization unless it could convince its bondholders to accept an increased offer by Hallmark Cards Inc., in which they would receive $131 million for a face value of $270 million in securities on a blended basis, following an initial bid that was widely turned down by the bondholders. The holders of two different series of Univision Holdings' debt accepted the bid and tendered their securities by April 13, preventing the bankruptcy protection proceedings, with Hallmark's offer to purchase the debt securities being completed by April 25.

Revamp and competition with Telemundo in the 1990s and 2000s

On April 8, 1992, Hallmark sold Univision to a group that included Los Angeles-based investor A. Jerrold Perenchio (a former partner in Norman Lear's Embassy Communications, who was outbid by the Hallmark-led consortium for the network in 1987), Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, and brothers Ricardo and Gustavo Cisneros (co-owners of Venezuelan broadcaster Venevision) for $550 million, in order to refocus its television operation efforts on cable provider Cencom Cable Associates, which it acquired the previous year for about $500 million. In order to comply with FCC rules on foreign ownership of television stations, the deal was structured to give Perenchio a controlling 75% interest in Univision's station group and 50% ownership of the network itself; Azcárraga and the Cisneroses held a 25% stake in the network and a 12.5% stake in the station group. The deal placed Univision under common ownership with competing cable channel Galavisión, which the Azcárraga-run Grupo Televisa owned at the time.

The sale raised concerns by several Latino activist groups such as the National Hispanic Media Coalition – which subsequently filed a petition to the FCC to deny the sale of Univision and its television stations – that it would lead to a drastic reduction in Univision's domestically originated programming output in favor of lower-cost, imported Latin American content, and allow Azcárraga to potentially expand control of American Spanish language television in the manner of Televisa's near-monopoly in Mexican media. Indeed, this concern was effectively confirmed in the release of an FCC filing for the Perenchio-Televisa-Venevision purchase in which Perenchio indicated "the programs offered ..by Televisa and Venevision will include at least a quantity of programs sufficient to fill a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week broadcast schedule", with local content consisting only of newscasts. This led Joaquin Blaya to resign from his role as Univision's president in May 1992 – after Perenchio had earlier assured him that the amount of domestic national programming on the network and its nine owned-and-operated stations would not be reduced before the filing was disclosed – concerned that it would limit opportunities to increase the amount of local programming content on Univision's stations.

Blaya was then hired by Telemundo to serve as its president and chief executive officer, and was subsequently joined by four other Univision senior executives on that network's production and management team. The FCC expedited its review of the deal, and approved the purchase on September 30, 1992, stating that the consortium was quantified to acquire Univision and that it was "unconvinced" by the petitioners' arguments that it would dilute the amount of American programming on the network. Subsequently, in January 1993, Univision canceled three U.S.-produced programs – the newsmagazines ''Portada'' ("Cover Story") and ''Al Mediodía'' and the variety series ''Charytin International'' – resulting in the layoffs of 70 production staffers based at Univision's Miami headquarters and at ''Al Mediodía''s base in Los Angeles; although two of the three programs were replaced by Televisa series (''Portada'' was replaced in its Wednesday night slot with the variety series ''El Nuevo Show'' ("The New Show"), a Los Angeles-based series hosted by Paul Rodriguez, which had aired on Saturdays for several years prior), Univision executives cited that all three programs were discontinued due to low ratings and not because of any plan to eschew American programming with imported content. Televisa and Venevision's stakes in the network in exchange the two foreign partners get 14.7% of Univision's revenue also gave Univision access to a broad selection of programs from Televisa and Venevision are locked up through 2017.

In 1993, Univision owner, Jerold Perenchio, in a swift and unprecedented move, after the acquisition, appointed a 27-year-old, Los Angeles native, Venezuelan-born, Miguel Banojian, Known for his in-depth, of the U.S. and Latin American Hispanic market, his impeccable professional skills, as well as his proven successful ratings Track records– to turn around the operations of the station group, but mainly Univision's West Coast flagship KMEX-Channel 34 Los Angeles, generating at the time of purchase of the company, approximately 40% of the Overall Univision revenue. Under Mr. Banojian, the network increased monetary investments in the stations, expanding staff and resources, introducing new sets for its newscasts, hiring and appointing KVEA's main anchor Jesus Javier, reporter Pepe Barreto also from KVEA, as well as hiring Andrea Kutyas, joining news anchor Eduardo Quezada, who worked at KMEX from 1975 to 2003, to lead and reshape KMEX's 11 p.m. newscast, which became the #1 late news in the Los Angeles Market. The overall re-organization effort, included, the purchasing of new live production equipment, updated production units, new master control equipment; new station antennas with more transmission power and a new studio located in Westchester, replacing the Hollywood studio which served from 1962 to March 1993. Same year, A Mexico City-based "MEDIA HUB CENTER ALLIANCE" was created by Televisa AND KMEX; both companies shared its operational, technical and resources strengths to increase market presence, Miguel Banojian representing KMEX, Alejandro Burillo Azcarraga, Shareholder & Executive VP of Televisa and Félix Cortés Camarillo VP of News & Production operations of Televisa, signed the alliance which included shared news bureaus in Mexico City, Los Angeles, Tijuana, San Francisco, Dallas, and Houston; Such alliance locked a leasing agreement of "Two" 24 hours transponders from its newly launched Geostationary "Intelsat 601", which served the satellite sharing between the two countries; the newly created satellite hub was later used by both networks to share programming and sales needs. One of the iconic marketing move to revamp the then dying "KMEX" station, Mr. Banojian and the KMEX group of engineers, also designed, created and launched what became, "The first U.S Hispanic Aerial Newsgathering operation", which included a brand new helicopter with call sign "Aguila 1" ("Eagle one" in its English translation). The news sets, production equipment, master control equipment, and antenna were upgraded. With all these operational moves, not only did KMEX-34 poise itself to acquire 70% of the Hispanic market share in Los Angeles market against its competitors including Telemundo, but achieved something unprecedented in U.S. television history: KMEX Channel 34 became the first Spanish-language television station ever to outperform English-language network stations (like NBC station KNBC, CBS station KCBS-TV, ABC station KABC-TV and Fox station KTTV) and overcame what had been Telemundo's national competitive edge against Univision. That year, Univision increased its advertising rates and was able to increase its cash flow, which allowed to go on to a purchase mode, acquiring KXLN, the first Spanish-language television station in the Houston market. Perenchio also invested $37 million, in conjunction with rival Telemundo, to develop the National Hispanic Television Index, a ratings system created by A.C. Nielsen to track viewership of Spanish language television networks. Perenchio also implemented new programming requirements in which non-sports programs were no longer allowed to run 20 minutes over their allotted timeslot.

Jesus Javier was hired as KVEA's main anchor, joined by reporter Pepe Barreto. Andrea Kuyas and veteran (1975 to 2003) KMEX news anchor Eduardo Quezada led the 11 p.m. newscast, which became the #1 late news in the Los Angeles market.

Also in 1993, KMEX agreed to share operational and technical resources with Televisa to enhance market presence. Banojian representing KMEX, with Televisa executive VP Alejandro Burillo Azcarraga, and Félix Cortés Camarillo, Televisa News and Production VP signed the "Media Hub Center Alliance", which included shared news bureaus in Mexico City, Los Angeles, Tijuana, San Francisco, Dallas, and Houston. The alliance leased two 24-hour transponders on the new Intelsat 601 to share programming and ads.

KMEX also purchased a new helicopter "Aguila 1" ("Eagle 1"), becoming the first Hispanic station in the U.S. to add aerial capability.

Univision increased its advertising rates and subsequently was able to acquire KXLN, the first Spanish-language television station in the Houston market. Perenchio also invested $37 million, in conjunction with Telemundo and A.C. Nielsen, to develop the National Hispanic Television Index to track viewership in Spanish language markets. Perenchio also implemented new programming requirements in which non-sports programs were no longer allowed to run 20 minutes over their allotted timeslot.
In 1996, Perenchio took Univision Holdings public for the first time. Univision also appointed Mario Rodriguez as its president of programming; Rodriguez developed a strategy to provide programming that would appeal to both Latino immigrants and native citizens, and increased domestic programming production (much of which consisted primarily of news, talk, and variety shows) to encompass 52% of the network's schedule. Univision also adopted the standard Latin American model of programming its prime-time telenovela lineup to appeal to different target audiences (with novelas aimed children airing at 7:00 p.m., those aimed teenagers at 8:00 p.m. and novelas targeted toward adults scheduled at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific). The following year, the network appointed former Housing and Urban Development secretary Henry Cisneros as its president and CEO, a post he remained in until his resignation in 2000 to head American CityVista, a contracting company that builds residential communities in inner cities.

At the same time, citing its dominance in the Spanish-language television market, having consistently beaten Telemundo and other smaller Spanish language networks in the ratings, the network decided to refocus its efforts on attracting Hispanic and Latinos viewers who preferred watching programs on English language broadcast and cable networks to grow its viewership further. The strategy helped Univision to nearly double its ratings during prime time by 1998, ranking as the fifth most-watched American broadcast network by the 1998–99 season (beating fledgling English-language networks UPN and The WB), as it steadily began to attract bilingual viewers away from the English-language networks. In September 1998, the network added two new shows to shore up its struggling afternoon lineup leading into the highly rated ''Cristina''. While one of the programs – the game show ''El Bla-Blazo'' – lasted only a few years, it experienced more long-term success with the newsmagazine that followed it, '' El Gordo y La Flaca'' ("The Scoop and the Skinny", although alternately translated as "The Fat Man and the Skinny Girl"), a Miami-based entertainment news program hosted by Raul De Molina and Lili Estefan, who had become popular with viewers for their entertainment reports on the network's news programs.

In June 2001, Univision entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Raycom Media to operate two television stations in Puerto Rico, WLII in Caguas and WSUR in Ponce, as part of a planned and protracted purchase of the two stations. At the time, WLII had long maintained an LMA with another Puerto Rican station, WSTE, which Univision maintained. Also around this time, Univision resumed its broadcast expansion by converting several television stations that it had acquired into affiliates of the network, including those in Raleigh, North Carolina (WUVC), Baltimore, Maryland ( WQAW), Cleveland, Ohio ( WQHS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (WUVP) and Atlanta, Georgia ( WUVG) – including one acquired from USA Broadcasting that had previously been affiliated with the Home Shopping Network, which was left out of the group's charter affiliation deals for Univision Communications' secondary network TeleFutura (now UniMás) when it launched in January of that year. Both WLII and WSUR were sold to Univision Communications outright in 2005. Since that point, Univision also signed affiliation agreements with television stations owned by other media companies in cities such as Detroit, Seattle, Portland, Oregon, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Nashville and Kansas City – expanding its affiliate body further outside the Univision-owned stations and stations owned by Entravision Communications.

In June 2002, Univision acquired Dallas-based Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., owner of Spanish language radio stations in markets such as New York City (WADO), Los Angeles ( KLVE), San Antonio ( KGSX, now KMYO) and Dallas (KESS), in a $3.5 billion all-stock transaction. Following the FCC's long-awaited approval of the acquisition, the group was renamed Univision Radio. The negotiations to merge the two companies followed years of on-again/off-again negotiations in which each company made an offer to acquire the other, as well as occasional takeover attempts of other television and radio station groups (HBC once attempted to broker a deal to merge with the Spanish Broadcasting System, and made a failed attempt to acquire Telemundo before Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media acquired that network in 1998).

In April 2003, KMEX news anchor Eduardo Quezada left for KVEA and spent three years working as a news anchor before retiring in 2006; his oldest son, Eduardo Quezada Jr., is one of the news writers and editors at KMEX.

In late 2004, a feud began between Perenchio and Televisa head Emilio Azcárraga Jean, regarding Univision's continual editing of Televisa's programming, and the failure to pay for rights to broadcast Televisa-produced sports and specials. The feud intensified to the point where Grupo Televisa filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Univision in a U.S. federal court in June 2005, accusing the network of several actions, including "unauthorized editing" of Televisa programming; Televisa also barred its most famous stars from appearing on any Univision-produced series and specials. Rumors also circulated that Univision would form a partnership with Televisa's longtime rival TV Azteca, which for a short period of time, bought airtime rights and allowed its video footage to be used on Univision's news programs.

During the 2000s, Univision also lost several key on-air personalities to Telemundo, including longtime weekend news anchor María Antonieta Collins (who left to host the morning program ''Cada Dia''), ''Primer Impacto'' anchor María Celeste Arrarás (who became the host of a similarly formatted newsmagazine, '' Al Rojo Vivo'') and sports announcers Andrés Cantor (known to many Americans for his exuberant announcement of "Goal!" during football matches) and Norberto Longo. By the middle of the decade, Univision overtook UPN and The WB – which shut down in September 2006 and were replaced by The CW, which Univision also outranks – as the fifth highest-rated network in total viewership; since then, it also sometimes posts higher viewership in the key age demographics of Adults 18–34 and Adults 18–49.

Other key on-air personalities that join Telemundo from Univision or Televisa in the 2000s are Lucero, Pedro Fernandez, Kate del Castillo, Aracely Arámbula, Raúl González, Blanca Soto, Laura Flores, Ana María Canseco, Cristina Saralegui.

On April 7, 2005, Univision aired '' Selena ¡VIVE!'' ("Selena Lives!"), a three-hour tribute concert in honor of slain singer Selena (who was murdered via gunshot in March 1995 by a fan who worked as part of her managerial staff). The concert earned a 35.9 Nielsen household rating, becoming the highest-rated program that night on all of the network television as well as the most-watched Spanish-language program in American television history.

On February 9, 2006, Univision Communications announced that it was putting itself up for sale. News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch stated that his company was considering buying Univision, but backed off that position (the company had already owned duopolies in several markets, and could not acquire the existing Univision stations in any event as FCC rules prohibit common ownership of three television stations in a single market except in cases where a market has 20 full-power stations, and sell some of its stations to get below the FCC's 39% market reach cap for any individual station owner). Other expected bidders included Grupo Televisa (which would have had to acquire the network under a partnership, due to FCC laws that restrict ownership of a television station or network by a foreign company to a percentage of no more than 25%), Time Warner, CBS Corporation, Viacom, The Walt Disney Company, Bill Gates, and several private equity firms. The Tribune Company was rumored to be interested in buying Univision's sister network TeleFutura.

On June 27, 2006, Univision Communications was acquired by Broadcasting Media Partners Inc. – a consortium of investment firms led by the Haim Saban-owned Saban Capital Group (which had previously owned Saban Entertainment until its sale to The Walt Disney Company in June 2001, as part of News Corporation's sale of Fox Family Worldwide), TPG Capital, L.P., Providence Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners – for $12.3 billion (increasing to $13.7 billion or $36.25 per share by the sale's closure), plus the assumption of $1.4 billion in debt. The sale received federal approval and was formally consummated on March 27, 2007.

The buyout left the company with a debt level of twelve times its annual cash flow, which was twice the debt incurred in buyouts that occurred over the previous two years. However, Univision's shareholders filed two class action lawsuits against Univision Communications and its board members to stop the buyout – one of which claimed that the board members structured the deal to only benefit the company's insiders and not average stockholders, while the other was filed on behalf of a shareholder identified as L A Murphy, who claimed that the board put its own personal interests and the interests of the winning bidder ahead of shareholders, and also failed to adequately evaluate the company's worth. Additional lawsuits were filed in the meantime, including one against the Univision Records division for heavy-handed tactics, and a suit filed by a winner of a $30,000 makeover prize in a contest held by the network's morning program ''¡Despierta América!'' who alleged that Univision broke its own contest rules.

On June 25, 2007, with the finale of ''La Fea Más Bella'' ("The Prettiest Ugly Girl", a telenovela based on the Colombian series ''Yo Soy Betty, la Fea''), Univision led all U.S. broadcast networks – English and Spanish – with a 3.0 rating out of 9 share, placing as the second most-watched network television program that week. Later that year, Univision hosted the first Spanish-language presidential debate in the United States at the University of Miami, featuring candidates vying for the Democratic nomination. In May 2008, Univision Music Group was sold to Universal Music Group and combined with the latter's Latin music label to become Universal Music Latin Entertainment.

In 2009, the network sponsored a countdown in Times Square, similar to the New Year's Eve event. On the evening of June 12, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, a 60-second countdown appeared on the Jumbotron-size screen in the Manhattan district to mark the shutdown of full-power analog television signals in the Eastern Time Zone, culminating in the message "" ("welcome to the digital era"). The countdown was aired live by the network during ''Ultima Hora: Una Nueva Era'', a special edition of its late-evening newscast ''Noticiero Univision: Ultima Hora''. The ball was lighted in white but was not dropped, remaining positioned at the bottom where the lighted "2009" sign also remained, despite the four-month delay of the digital television transition from February 17. On December 7 of that year, Univision announced it would launch an in-house production division, Univision Studios, a Doral, Florida-based company that would produce original programming content for Univision and TeleFutura; former RTVE president Luis Fernandez was appointed to lead the new division.

2010s

During the first week of September 2011, the network reached a milestone, earning its first #1 ranking in the ratings among all American broadcast television networks – English and Spanish – in the 18–49 age demographic, assisted by a prime time football match between Mexico and Ecuador and the season finale of the Colombian reality game show '' Desafío: La Gran Batalla'' ("Challenge: The Great Battle"), along with the English networks having traditionally weak programming that time of year, prior to the launch of the fall television season.

In October 2011, Televisa reached an agreement to acquire a 5% ownership stake in Univision (marking the third time that the company held equity in Univision Communications in its history), with the option of expanding its interest in the future. As part of the deal, Televisa also signed a long-term extension to its program licensing agreement with Univision – which runs through at least 2020, through with an option to extend it to 2025 or later – which expanded upon the previous agreement, which was set to expire in 2017, to give Univision rights to stream Televisa content via the internet and on mobile platforms and covers key rights to matches from Mexican football leagues.

On October 17, 2012, Univision Communications unveiled an updated corporate logo, which was adopted on-air by the Univision network during the broadcast of its New Year's Eve countdown program ''¡Feliz 2013!'' ("Happy 2013!") on December 31. The new logo shares the multicolored quadrant design of the previous logo (which had been used since January 1990), but now resembles a three-dimensional heart to represent its new slogan, "El latido del corazón hispano de Estados Unidos" ("The Hispanic Heartbeat of the United States"). The revised logo's new three-dimensional shape was intended to represent Univision's recent growth as a "360-degree", multi-platform media company, while its seamless form represented the unity of Hispanic cultures.

On May 8, 2012, Univision and ABC News announced that the two companies would jointly create an English-language digital cable and satellite news channel, later given the name Fusion in February 2013, that would be primarily aimed at English-speaking Hispanic and Latino American audiences; Fusion was launched on October 28, 2013.

During the 2010s, the network reached viewership parity with the five major English-language U.S. broadcast television networks.

2020s

In 2020, Univision was acquired by foreign investors and Wade Davis was appointed CEO. The US federal government approved the foreign acquisition under specific conditions around safeguards of personal identifiable information of US consumers.

In April 2021, part of Televisa and Univision announced their intention to merge into Televisa-Univision.

In November 2021, Univision reacquired local stations in Tampa, FL, Orlando, FL and Washington, DC from affiliate operator Entravision.

Programming

Univision operates on a 164-hour network programming schedule, which it adopted in January 2013. The network's base programming feed provides general entertainment programming on an uninterrupted 24-hour schedule each weekday, from 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. Monday through Friday and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time on Saturdays and Sundays (the first three hours of the secondary weekend schedule on Saturday mornings, starting at 8:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, is occupied by the children's programming block "Planeta U"). The remaining weekend time periods are filled with infomercials (prior to 2013, the network had programmed a full 168-hour schedule, with reruns of past Televisa-produced entertainment programs filling the two hours on Saturday and Sundays now occupied by paid programming).

Although Univision's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates largely rely on the network's master feed to fill their daily broadcast schedule, many of its stations also produce their own local programming, usually in the form of newscasts and public affairs programs (production of local infotainment programming, and leasing of brokered programs such as direct response and religious content, is at the station's discretion). Many Univision stations usually air limited local news programming, which are commonly reserved for early and late evening timeslots on Monday through Friday nights, with the master feed incorporating alternate programming that news programming may pre-empt on its broadcast outlets during these designated time periods (as well as others in which stations carry additional local programs); some of its stations may also air newscasts on weekday mornings (these are mainly limited to the network's O&Os in larger markets) and/or on weekend evenings.

The majority of Univision's programming consists of telenovelas and series produced by Televisa, the majority of which originated on the company's flagship network in Mexico, Las Estrellas. Prior to 2009, Univision had also broadcast telenovelas and other programs produced by Venezuelan broadcaster Venevisión. Otherwise, Univision produces a moderate amount of original programming, including the reality competition series ''Nuestra Belleza Latina'' ("Our Latin Beauty"), ''La Banda'' ("The Band") and ''Mi Pongo Mi Pie'' ("I Stand Up"); national news programming; entertainment news shows ''El Gordo y La Flaca'' and ''Sal y pimienta'' ("Salt and Pepper"); and sports discussion program '' República Deportiva'' ("Sports Republic"). Univision also operates its own television production unit, Univision Studios, which its corporate parent launched in 2009 and produces original content for the network.

The network's signature program, the variety show ''Sabado Gigante'', hosted by Don Francisco, aired on Univision every Saturday night from April 12, 1986 to September 19, 2015 (its final episode was broadcast live in the U.S., Mexico and in Chile, where the program originated in 1962); in addition, from September 2004 to May 2015, Univision aired ''Clásicos de Sábado Gigante'' ("Giant Saturday Classics"), an early Sunday morning program consisting of condensed two-hour episodes of the series on an approximately one-year delay from their original broadcast. After ''Sabado Gigante'' ended its 29-year run on the network, Univision continued the Saturday evening variety tradition with its move of the Televisa-produced music and game show ''Sabadazo'' – which it had aired on Saturday afternoons since the show moved from sister network TeleFutura (now UniMás) in September 2012 – into part of ''Gigante''s former time slot on October 17, 2015, before reverting to an afternoon slot and being replaced by the investigative news program ''Crónicas De Sábado'' after four months due to low ratings. As such, Univision is one of only two American television networks that airs the first-run program during Saturday prime time ( CBS is the only other, although ABC, Fox and occasionally NBC broadcast live sporting events during Saturday prime on certain weeks of the year).

Univision also typically airs drama and variety series in the afternoon (telenovelas that appeal to teen or pre-teen audiences previously aired on early Saturday afternoons until 2011). Scripted series and variety shows (such as ''Bailando por un Sueño'' ("Dancing for a Dream"), ''Como Dice el Dicho'' ("As the Proverb Goes") and ''El Chavo Animado'' ("El Chavo: The Animated Series")) largely make up Univision's weekend lineup. Reality programming became a focal point of the network's Sunday primetime schedule beginning in 2007, with the debut of the beauty pageant competition series ''Nuestra Belleza Latina'' ("Our Latin Beauty"). Sitcoms, once a major part of the network's schedule, have a reduced presence on Univision in recent years; since 2008, the network has only obtained rights to two comedies produced by Televisa since that time (''Durmiendo con mi Jefe'' ("Sleeping with My Boss") and ''Todo en Incluido'' ("All Inclusive"), both of which began airing on Univision in 2014), although it continues to air comedies that are no longer in production to which Univision continues to maintain U.S. distribution rights (including the family sitcom ''La Familia P. Luche'' and the sketch comedies ''La Hora Pico'', ''Desmadruga2'' and its spin-off ''Estrella2''), mainly in overnight and select weekend timeslots.

Although its reliance on them has greatly decreased since 2009, the network also airs some feature films, generally older Mexican imported films from the 1960s to the 1980s, which occasionally air in weekend timeslots not occupied by afternoon football events or Sunday evening reality programs (this is in contrast to UniMás and Telemundo, which both air Spanish-dubbed versions of films produced for the English-language market, although Telemundo also airs Mexican-produced films in overnight timeslots). Until September 2009, when the network began ceding the time period to telenovelas, Univision filled the 10:00 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific Time) hour on Monday through Fridays with various programs each night (including ''Cristina'', ''Don Francisco Presenta'' ("Don Francisco Presents"), the newsmagazine '' Aqui y Ahora'' ("Here and Now") and Televisa-produced sitcoms and sketch comedies), mirroring the scheduling of English language broadcast networks.

Distribution agreements

English subtitles

On January 30, 2012, Univision became the second Spanish language network in the United States to provide English closed captions transmitted over the CC3 caption channel, and the third network overall to provide CC3 captions in any form. The captions are intended to attract Hispanic viewers and others who are not fluent in Spanish, and primarily appear during the network's evening telenovela block each Monday through Friday from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time. Some weekend evening programs (such as ''Nuestra Belleza Latina'') also utilize English captions, in addition to the native Spanish-language captions on the CC1 caption stream.

Prior to Univision gaining these captions, competing network Telemundo has carried English subtitles during its entire weeknight prime time schedule from September 2003 to October 2008 and again since March 2009. And in an inverse manner, upon the launch of the now-defunct Qubo Channel in 2007, most of its programming included CC3 Spanish subtitles in addition to its native CC1 English subtitles.

Unlike the respective CC3 captions transmitted by both Telemundo and Qubo Channel, Univision does not include these captions during most repeat broadcasts of telenovelas airing outside of the network's prime time schedule following the program's original run on the network.

Content editing

In 2004, Univision published a list of words it edited from programs broadcast by the network (mostly those acquired from Televisa and other distributors) to comply with broadcast decency standards set by the Federal Communications Commission. The words affected had no negative connotations in some Spanish-speaking countries, but had obscene connotations in other countries.

In June 2005, Grupo Televisa filed a lawsuit against Univision in a U.S. federal court, accusing the network of several actions, including "unauthorized editing" of Televisa programming. Since 2013, Univision has edited various telenovelas aired within its prime time schedule if a telenovela does not garner sufficient ratings; as such, scenes from a single program (such examples include ''Qué Bonito Amor'' ("Beautiful Love"), ''La Tempestad'' ("The Storm"), '' De Que te Quiero, te Quiero'' ("Head Over Heels") and ''La Malquerida'' ("The Unloved")) comprising 1½ to three episodes are sometimes removed and combined to fit into a one-hour timeslot. In 2015, the network implemented further content edits, removing scenes incorporating forms of physical violence or situations of a sexual nature or incorporating substance use involving minors on some of its telenovelas and anthology serials (such as ''La Rosa de Guadalupe'' and ''Como Dice el Dicho''), regardless of the integrality of such depictions to the episode's plotline.

News programming

The network operates a news division, Noticias Univision ("Univision News"), which produces the network's flagship newscast ''Noticiero Univision'', which airs in the form of two daily half-hour early and late evening broadcasts (the late-evening newscast formerly maintained a in-depth, investigative focused program ''Noticiero Univision Ultima Hora'' ("Noticiero Univision: Last Hour") from 2002 to 2008, under anchor Enrique Gratas, before reverting to the format of its early evening edition); it also produces the morning news and lifestyle program ''¡Despierta América!'' ("Wake Up America!"), the late afternoon newsmagazine series ''Primer Impacto'' (which originally aired as a seven-day-a-week broadcast until 2007, and produces a condensed half-hour edition ''Primer Impacto Extra'', which airs in place of late local newscasts on affiliates without their own news department or which choose to preempt regularly scheduled local newscasts on certain holidays) and the Sunday morning talk show ''Al Punto'' ("To the Point").

In 1987, Univision appointed Roberto FE Soto – a former producer at NBC News – to produce a revamped flagship evening newscast, ''Noticiero Univision'', becoming the network's youngest executive; the network also reassigned Ramos and hired veteran journalist Maria Elena Salinas to co-anchor the evolving network newscast. Univision eventually decided to expand its news programming to afternoons; in 1992, the network debuted ''Noticias y Más'' ("News and More"), anchored by Nespral, Ambrosio Hernandez and Raúl Peimbert; Myrka Dellanos joined the program after Nespral's departure later that year. Hernandez and Peimbert left Univision in 1993 to join Telemundo, while Nespral became co-host of the weekend edition of NBC's ''Today''. Univision had other plans for the moribund show: the network revamped its format, changed its name and its theme music, and hired Puerto Rican-born María Celeste Arrarás as a weekend reporter to serve as Dellanos' partner; the retooled newsmagazine series became ''Primer Impacto'' ("First Impact") in February 1994.

On April 14, 1997, Univision launched ''¡Despierta América!'' as a Spanish-language competitor to NBC's ''Today'', ABC's ''Good Morning America'' and '' CBS This Morning''. The program – which originally ran for three hours, before expanding to four in 2013 – is known for coining the catch phrase, "échate pa' acá" ("Come here"), which is also the name of an entertainment segment focusing news and gossip about Latin entertainers. This format was later carried over to another show, ''Un Nuevo Día'', when Telemundo retooled that program originally known as ''¡Levantate!'' in 2013. ''¡Despierta América!'' has since developed its own style of reporting news of various topics, such as immigration, sports, consumer, health, lifestyle, fashion, beauty and entertainment content.

Today, Univision's news programs typically outrank its Spanish-language competitors, with the early-evening edition of ''Noticiero Univision'' often placing ahead of its English-language rivals (''NBC Nightly News'', ''ABC World News Tonight'' and the ''CBS Evening News'') among viewers in the 18–49 demographic. Most of Univision's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates produce their own local programming, usually in the form of local newscasts and public affairs programs. Newscasts aired on the network's stations are usually broadcast in early and late evening timeslots – with many non-O&Os not owned by Univision Communications and Entravision Communications airing them only on Monday through Fridays – although some O&Os and affiliates also air newscasts on weekday mornings and/or weekend evenings (with morning newscasts being limited mainly to the network's larger-market O&Os).

Sports

The network also maintains a sports division, Univision Deportes, which is responsible for the production of sports content on Univision, UniMás, Galavisión and its dedicated cable-satellite sports channel Univision Deportes Network. For the main Univision broadcast network, the division produces association football matches from Liga MX (which have aired since 1987), select matches involving the Mexico and United States men's national football teams, as well as tournament matches from the CONCACAF Gold Cup (the rights to which it assumed in 2000) and Copa América (which began airing in 1993). The network formerly held the Spanish language broadcast rights to the FIFA World Cup from 1970 until 2014 and the FIFA Women's World Cup from 1999 until 2011, with the rights migrating to Telemundo and NBC Universo beginning with the 2015 Women's World Cup.

In addition, the division also produces the weekly sports talk program ''República Deportiva'', a Sunday daytime program that debuted in April 1999 with a companion late-night edition premiering in January 2015; and the weeknightly sports highlight/discussion program ''Contacto Deportivo'' ("Contact Sports"), which debuted in 2002 on what was then Telefutura, before moving to the main Univision network on March 2, 2015.

Children's programming

Children's programming has played a part in Univision's programming since its initial roots as the Spanish International Network. From 1962 until 2004, the bulk of SIN/Univision's children's programming was derived of mainly live-action and animated programming from Televisa and other content partners.

The network's first foray into children's programming, "Univision Infantiles", and featured Spanish-language dubs of the Japanese anime shows (''Future Boy Conan'' and '' Voltron: Defender of the Universe''). In June 1989, Univision launched a weekday and Saturday morning block, '' Univision y Los Niños'', was in partnership of DIC Entertainment (''Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors'', ''Kidd Video'', ''Rainbow Brite'' and ''The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin''). The block was discontinued in September 15, 1990, it was replaced with "Platavision", and it was carried with some DIC-produced shows. In 1991, Univision introduced "Chispavision", featuring the notable program was ''El Show de Xuxa'' ("The Xuxa Show"), a variety-based series starring the Southern Brazilian entertainer, which became a hit in the U.S. when it debuted on the network in 1992 (Xuxa would subsequently star in an American syndicated version of the program that aired for one season from 1993 to 1994).

In April 1995, Univision test-marketed ''Plaza Sésamo'' ("Sesame Plaza"), Televisa and Children's Television Workshop's (now Sesame Workshop) Spanish-language adaptation of ''Sesame Street'' featuring a mix of original segments featuring characters based on its U.S.-based parent series and dubbed interstitials from the aforementioned originating program, on its owned-and-operated stations in Los Angeles, Dallas and Miami. The success of the test run led the network to begin airing the program nationally beginning on December 11 of that year; the program aired on Univision until 2002, when it moved to its newly created sister network TeleFutura as part of its " Mi Tele" ("My TV") block (the Univision network resumed its relationship with the now-Sesame Workshop when it debuted the U.S.-based Spanish language spin-off '' Sesame Amigos'' ("Sesame Friends") in August 2015). The network aired its children's programs on weekday and Saturday mornings until April 1997, when Univision relegated its children's programming exclusively to Saturday mornings to make room for its new morning news/talk/lifestyle program ''¡Despierta América!''.

On March 30, 1996, after the children's block was hiatus since 1993, Univision debuted '' La Piñata Loca'' with the host by the comedian, George Ortuzar and entering into an agreement with Hanna-Barbera. A block featuring Spanish dubs of the animated series programming. The sub-block was launched within Saturday morning, "Giorgiomania" and featuring of the cartoon series, '' Cro'' (attempt with the based on "Sesame Street" was developed by Children's Television Workshop; now Sesame Workshop). The blocks were discontinued after February 27, 2000, when it was George "O" left Univision before the ending by the air, it was replaced with "¡De Cabeza!" debuted on October 7, 2000, which featured a mix of acquired programming from various provides, including Film Roman (''Bruno the Kid'' and ''The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat'') and MB