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Univision is launching a new advertising supported video on demand service in the U.S., PrendeTV, which will offer Spanish-language TV series, movies and other content for U.S. Hispanic audiences.
To do that, Univision is turning to content from the mutual libraries of Univision and its Mexican content supplier and partial owner, Televisa.
“PrendeTV is an important, early step in Univision’s broader efforts to build the same leadership position we have in Spanish-language TV, in the emerging Spanish-language streaming space,” said Univision CEO Wade Davis in a statement. “The announcement of PrendeTV within two weeks of closing our acquisition of Univision underscores our focus and commitment to rapidly driving the transformation and growth of the company. PrendeTV is unlike anything our audience has access to today and will completely change the landscape for video streaming in Spanish-language media in the United States.”
Late last year, a consortium of investors led by former Viacom CFO Davis and his company ForgeLightLLC with backing from Searchlight Capital closed on their 64% acquisition of Univision for a reported $526 million, with Televisa retaining the remaining 36%.
The new service will launch with more than 30 channels and 10,000 hours of video-on-demand programming in Spanish from global content partners, with plans to add more in the coming months, Univision said.
“With the launch of PrendeTV, we are focused on bringing new ways for our advertisers to reach the U.S. Hispanic audience and, importantly, PrendeTV will be a critical part of our strategy to grow the scope of our business partnerships with our key distributors.”
PrendeTV will be available in the first quarter at Prende.tv and via mobile and connected TV apps with distribution partners to be announced later.
Other competitors in this space include NBCUniversal’s Peacock Latino, which includes programming from Univision-rival Telemundo; ViacomCBS’ PlutoTV Latino; and a Spanish-language offering from Fox’s Tubi. Sony also offers three Spanish-language free ad-supported TV channels on Roku.
Earlier this week, Univision announced a raft of new executives, including Pierluigi Gazzolo as president and chief transformation officer; Luis Silberwasser, formerly of Telemundo, as president of Univision Television Networks Group; and Donna Speciale, WarnerMedia’s former advertising chief, as head of sales and marketing.
Tags: avod prendetv univision us hispanic