Although viewers are increasingly turning to the Internet to watch popular TV programs, fans of the blockbuster Spanish-language soap operas, including "Cuidado con el Angel" ("Don't Mess With the Angel"), are out of luck if they want to see the shows legally on the Web.
That could soon change. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Los Angeles is scheduled to hear evidence to decide whether Mexico's largest media company, Grupo Televisa, has the right to offer its enormously popular telenovelas to U.S. audiences via the Internet.
The trial is the latest legal skirmish between the media industry's Hatfields and McCoys, Televisa and Univision Communications Inc., which owns the dominant Spanish-language television networks in the U.S. The two companies have been feuding for years over the rights to Televisa's telenovelas, which depict stories of love, betrayal and power -- and fuel Univision's smash prime-time TV ratings.
Earlier this year the companies settled a long-running dispute that had been closely watched by Wall Street. Televisa had sought to break its 25-year deal to provide its shows exclusively to Univision's TV networks, a move that would have stripped Univision of its most popular programming and undercut its advertising revenue.
As part of the truce, Televisa agreed to maintain its relationship with Univision through 2017, when the programming deal ends. The February settlement, which came midway through a trial, was a relief to Univision and the banks that hold nearly $10 billion in Univision debt that was created when the company was taken private in 2007.
But for the last three years Televisa and Univision have put off the thorny issue over the Internet rights for Televisa's programs.
"The stakes are high for both sides," said Julio Rumbaut, a consultant who specializes in Spanish-language media. "Look at the proliferation of new media during the past few years. The demand for entertainment on the Internet has been growing by leaps and bounds, and that's only going to continue."
Televisa's programs have attracted a large following on the Internet. Pirated episodes of Televisa's telenovelas are among the most-viewed TV shows posted on YouTube, according to recent research by the online video analytics firm TubeMogul Inc.
Last week there were 57,200 videos on YouTube from shows that air on Univision, and those clips had attracted more than 613 million views, according to TubeMogul.
