Univision

FLUSH with a growing Latino audience and increasing recognition as a dominant player in the broadcast industry, Univision is heading into the fall television season determined to close in on its English-language competitors. During its announcement to reporters Wednesday morning, Univision said it would add seven new series to its prime-time lineup, including four telenovelas, two reality shows and one comedy.

NEW YORK — Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications touted something that its English-language broadcast rivals cannot: Prime-time ratings at its flagship TV network, Univision, have grown 7% during the current season. Ratings gains in an era of shrinking TV audiences are uncommon as major broadcasters struggle to maintain their standing. Cable channels, social media and advances in technology — including digital video recorders — continue to nibble away at viewership, particularly among younger audiences.

Replete with clunky dialogue and stock characters, the telenovela is a nail-biting combination of soap opera and fairy tale, but it has proven once again to be the bedrock of Spanish-language television programming. While Univision maintains its huge lead over Telemundo, its scrappy competitor, the distance between the two networks' ratings narrowed just a bit last month after Telemundo reverted to an entire three-hour prime-time block of new telenovelas.

Speaking the language of the fast growing and increasingly desirable Latino audience, Walt Disney Co.'s ABC News and Univision Communications are teaming up to launch a 24-hour English-language news network. The yet-unnamed cable channel, announced Monday, is expected to launch during the first half of next year. The two companies plan to get a head start this summer with a website and content for social networks and mobile devices devoted to covering the U.S. presidential election — which some analysts say could be decided by Latino voters in battleground states.

"El Show de Cristina" bids a star-studded farewell Monday, but host and executive producer Cristina Saralegui says you shouldn't believe everything you read. Despite Univision's claims that the 21-year-old groundbreaking hit show is ending because Saralegui is retiring, she says that she did not quit and that she'll work until "I rot. " In fact, the 12-time Emmy winner already has landed a new job, which she can't disclose until her contract with Univision ends Dec. 31. But she says she will be back on TV in March.

Goodbye, metrosexual, and hola, vanidoso . Increasingly, growth in the men's grooming arena will be driven by the personal care habits of Latinos. That's the takeaway from a recent study focusing on the grooming preferences of Latino men in the United States and Census Bureau figures that show the Hispanic population growing at a faster rate than the general population. "That demographic is really driving population growth," said Peter Filiaci, vice president of brand solutions for Univision, the Spanish-language network that commissioned the grooming study.

Spanish-language television network Univision News will go to Argentina next month for the country's presidential elections, according to Guillermo Martinez, Univision's vice president and news director. Maria Elena Salinas, Univision News co-anchor and Osvaldo Petrozzino, Univision News correspondent, will report daily from Buenos Aires from May 10 through 15 (the election is on May 14), and the network has scheduled a special series of reports during its evening and late-night newscasts.

Kudos to reporter Reed Johnson for his great piece about a new book written by Mexican women ["In a Voice Rarely Heard, 38 Women Speak for Mexico's Silent Generation," Dec. 12]. Johnson's piece is more than a book review. He provides a very right-on, insightful analysis about the state of women in Mexico. The only scary part about this story is the fact that some adaptation of the book has been produced by Televisa and will be broadcast in the U.S. on Univision. I just hope it's not watered-down or sensationalized like Univision usually treats serious topics.

Univision, formerly the Spanish International Network (SIN), announced this week that it will launch the West Coast's first nationally broadcast Spanish-language weeknight news program on Jan. 19. The program will be produced here at the KMEX-TV Channel 34 studios. The 50-minute newscast, to be seen at 11 p.m., will be produced by Univision's recently formed sister company, ECO (Empresa de Comunicaciones Orbitales).

Sometimes unwritten words are more potent than any printed on a page. That appears to be the case with the controversy that erupted after employees at all-Spanish KMEX-TV Channel 34 in Los Angeles recently submitted a petition to their incoming general manager requesting that he fill a news director's vacancy with a person "who reflects the interests . . . experience and culture of the Los Angeles TV audience." The petition's language seemed harmless enough. Few station managers would ever admit to hiring a news director without weighing local audience needs.

Hoping to attract a rapidly growing U.S. Latino audience, online video site Hulu has launched a Spanish-language programming service with popular shows from networks Univision, Estrella TV and Azteca America. Spanish-language programming has been scattered across different Internet sites. And some of the most popular programs, including the spicy telenovelas produced by Grupo Televisa of Mexico, were not available online in the U.S. Hulu, which has ramped up its offerings this year, saw an opportunity.

The threat by six Republican presidential candidates to boycott a Florida debate speaks to a deep divide among Latinos in the United States. And it doesn't bode well for the future of immigration reform, either. The debate was being planned for late January by Univision, the largest Spanish-language television network in the United States (and the fourth-largest network overall in the country). But that was before a blowup between the network and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a Cuban American and one of the country's few prominent Latino Republicans.

The nation's leading Spanish-language broadcaster will aggressively expand the breadth of its online entertainment offerings, making its popular telenovelas , variety shows and reality series available through Internet television distributor Hulu. The deal represents a milestone for Univision Communications Inc., the fifth-largest television network in the U.S., whose popular programming dominates the Latino market. For Hulu, owned by media giants News Corp., Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp., the partnership enables the online video service to reach a population of 50.5 million Latinos — a group coveted by advertisers.

NBCUniversal's surprise pick to run its Spanish-language television operation Telemundo must pull off a particularly difficult task: clawing deep into a market dominated by entrenched powerhouse Univision Communications. "This is going to be a lot of work but a lot of fun," Emilio Romano said in an interview Wednesday, after the media veteran and former top airline executive was named president of Telemundo. Romano starts his new job in October. He replaces former President Don Browne, a longtime NBC executive who retired in June.

Goodbye, metrosexual, and hola, vanidoso . Increasingly, growth in the men's grooming arena will be driven by the personal care habits of Latinos. That's the takeaway from a recent study focusing on the grooming preferences of Latino men in the United States and Census Bureau figures that show the Hispanic population growing at a faster rate than the general population. "That demographic is really driving population growth," said Peter Filiaci, vice president of brand solutions for Univision, the Spanish-language network that commissioned the grooming study.

Univision Communications Inc. has installed veteran television executive Randy Falco as its new chief executive, with the task of capitalizing on the growth of the U.S. Latino population to steer the Spanish-language media company into the mainstream. Falco's promotion, unanimously approved by Univision's board Wednesday, comes in the wake of a tumultuous period for the nation's dominant Spanish-language media company. Univision for years was distracted by feuds with its primary programming partner, Mexico-based Grupo Televisa.

Although all three major network nightly newscasts will emanate from Denver tonight and Friday in conjunction with Pope John Paul II's visit there, the only live television coverage will be provided by Cable News Network, the Spanish-language Telemundo and Univision networks and KCBS-TV Channel 2. CNN, Telemundo (whose programming is carried locally by KVEA-TV Channel 52) and Univision (KMEX-TV Channel 34) will have live coverage of the Pope's scheduled 1:30 p.m.

Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications Inc. plans to launch three new cable television channels next year in a bid to tighten its grip on the growing Latino market and diversify its revenues. Univision is expected to announce Thursday that one of the channels will offer soccer and other sports, one will be devoted to news and information, and a third will showcase the spicy Spanish-language soap operas, or telenovelas , that fuel Univision Network's prime-time ratings.