In 1961, Mexican media mogul Emilio Azcarraga Vidaurreta saw a rich future in the steady stream of his viewers heading north and the vast population of Latinos who had already put down U.S. roots. So he made a move, buying KCOR-TV in San Antonio, the nation's first Spanish-language TV station.
He envisioned a vast Spanish-language TV network--christened Spanish International Network--that would bring programming, fed from his extensive library of shows, to Spanish-speakers across America.
In a classic journey of immigrant assimilation, what started as one small Texas TV station has indeed blossomed into a nationwide broadcast network, now called Univision. The Los Angeles-based network today holds an astonishing 92% share of the prime-time audience that watches TV in Spanish--a universe that Nielsen Media Research estimates to be 8.3 million households and 28.3 million viewers age 2 and older.
In Los Angeles, Miami and Houston, Univision-owned stations often draw more viewers than the major network-owned stations, and Univision is gaining share among key Latino 18-to-49-year-olds who watch television in prime time, whether in Spanish or English.
The company's stock price has more than tripled in the last two years. In 1998, Univision reported operating profit of $131.2 million on revenue of $577.1 million, up 25.6% from $104.4 million in operating profit and $459.7 million in revenue in 1997.
Despite these striking gains, Univision's future depends on a difficult balancing act. The network must continue to draw new viewers from a constant influx of immigrants, many of them illegal and virtually unassimilated. Yet it also needs to retain upscale, bilingual Latinos--often several generations beyond immigration--who in the past have shunned its programs as cheap fare for the newly arrived.
By attempting this straddle, the Spanish-language network may redefine what it means to be an American broadcaster.
To be sure, Univision is not a likely model of change in television. One major network chief says Univision doesn't even figure on his radar screen, and even older-skewing CBS still draws three times as many younger adults in prime time.
But Azcarraga's vision is proving to be more far-reaching than he could have imagined 38 years ago. The American population is changing, with Latinos poised to emerge as the largest single minority by 2005, claiming one in eight Americans. And Univision is growing, while its more established English-language rivals are declining.
