Six years ago, there was just one thing keeping Univision from becoming a major television network: It didn't have enough viewers.
Flush with capital after its purchase by media mogul A. Jerrold Perenchio and with a deep well of first-rate programming from production partners Televisa, of Mexico, and Venevision, of Venezuela, the network nonetheless had little room to grow. It already was the dominant Spanish-language broadcast company in the U.S., far ahead of Telemundo and other competitors.
"That's when we said it doesn't make sense for us to be beating up Telemundo or anybody else in Spanish. We should be talking about growing the [Spanish-language] pie," says Mario Rodriguez, Univision's vice president of programming. "The idea was to go after Hispanic viewers watching English [television]."
Since then, Univision's prime-time viewership has nearly doubled, growing so fast that the network heads into the new fall season as the fifth-largest in the U.S. So it's not surprising to find that Telemundo is now looking to the general market for growth as well.
Flush with its own infusion of capital and other resources in the wake of its purchase by Sony and Liberty Media, the nation's No. 2 Spanish-language network will this month unveil a new lineup of sitcoms, dramas and game shows. But perhaps the most significant thing about the lineup is what's been left out: For the first time in its history, Telemundo's prime-time programming will include no telenovelas (soap operas).
"We want to bring something extra, something else to the marketplace," says Peter Tortorici, Telemundo's new president and CEO. "I think there's tremendous room here for both of us to do what we do well--although in some ways differently--and expand the base both of audience and advertising dollars that we may be reaching into."
Although Univision has been siphoning bilingual viewers away from the English-language networks since at least 1995, its boldest assault came 17 months ago when it rolled out "Despierta America," a three-hour morning program similar in format to ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "Today." The lively, unpredictable show quickly drew an audience to what had been a dead spot in Univision's lineup, doubling the network's morning ratings in Miami and tripling viewership in New York.
But there are few similarly dynamic additions among the 14 new fall shows Univision will begin rolling out this month. Instead, the network seems content to make only minor adjustments to its prime-time package.
