Univision Company

Back in 1961, Mexico's leading media mogul bought a television station in San Antonio, certain there was big money to be made from the millions of mexicanos moving north of the border. He was right. Emilio Azcarraga Vidaurreta started buying more stations, laying the foundation for the first Spanish- language television network in the United States. But in 1986, federal laws limiting foreign ownership of broadcast stations forced the Azcarraga family to cede control.

Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications Inc. said that first-quarter earnings jumped 41% as advertisers committed more of their budgets to reaching U.S. Latino consumers. Los Angeles-based Univision said quarterly profit outpaced analysts' estimates at $44.5 million, or 13 cents a share, up from $31.6 million, or 9 cents, a year earlier. Revenue grew 23% to $433 million from $352.9 million.

Univision Communications Inc.'s simmering boardroom battle boiled over Tuesday when the Spanish-language media company announced that the head of its second-largest shareholder, Grupo Televisa, had resigned as Univision vice chairman. Some analysts said Emilio Azcarraga Jean's departure, which came on the eve of Univision's annual shareholder meeting, signaled that he was probably stepping up his campaign to wrest control of the company from Los Angeles billionaire A. Jerrold Perenchio.

Movie studios wondering where filmgoers went this summer can rest assured of one thing: For the most part, those missing Americans weren't glued to the broadcast networks. With the notable exception of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" -- by far the summer's biggest new hit, with an average of 16.8 million viewers -- the six major broadcast networks have slogged through a disappointing summer, with household viewing down about 6% compared with the same period last year.

The Latin Grammys are moving to Univision, where the show will be broadcast Nov. 3 in Spanish from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The awards show aired on CBS for four years -- it was canceled in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks -- but never found an audience. Gabriel Abaroa, president of the Latin Recording Academy, said organizers chose to leave CBS after executives refused to let organizers make the show more Latino-oriented in an effort to attract more viewers.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stood before a Spanish-language television audience Tuesday to sell his package of special election initiatives, but instead faced questions about such issues as driver's licenses, relations with Mexico and the cost of a college education. The governor's critics quickly denounced the hourlong appearance, which will air Saturday morning on Univision stations statewide, as a "gift" from the network's chairman, who is Schwarzenegger's largest single campaign donor.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bought nearly $1 million in advertising time on Spanish-language Univision television in mid-October, at roughly the same time the network's chairman gave him a $1.5-million donation, campaign finance reports show. The governor's campaign has spent nothing at Univision's rival, Telemundo, this year, though both networks have similar audiences. Other campaigns in the 2005 special election are buying ad time on both.

Nothing nullifies a pop culture trend in the United States like being dumped by a major TV network. So when CBS dropped the Latin Grammy Awards from its lineup earlier this year, it might have appeared to casual viewers that the 5-year-old Grammy spinoff was headed to oblivion. Ratings had nose-dived for the annual Latin music showcase, so there were no peeps of protest when it was bumped from CBS' fall schedule.

Presented for the first time on Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, the sixth annual Latin Grammys on Thursday delivered 5.1 million total viewers, the network said. The three-hour awards ceremony honoring a broad array of popular Latin musical styles improved dramatically compared with last year's performance on CBS (3.3 million viewers). The telecast also hit its highest-ever ratings among young adults in the crucial 18 to 34 demographic.

Nielsen Media Research will include in its national ratings shows aired by Univision Communications Inc. starting next week, a move that is expected to better measure the nation's growing Latino audience. Nielsen has long been criticized for failing to provide a complete picture of television viewership by using a system that excludes the preferences of millions of Spanish-speaking Latinos when it calculates the size of TV audiences and the most popular shows.