Univision launches streaming service

Univision Communications is making an ambitious push into streaming with PrendeTV, an advertising-supported Spanish-language service with more than three dozen live television channels and a deep library of on-demand programs.

Tuesday’s launch of PrendeTV follows just three months after a new ownership group took control of Univision with a goal of returning the storied Spanish-language broadcaster to prominence. The company stumbled during its 14-year ownership by private equity investors who were slow to recognize generational changes in TV viewership — and the rise of Netflix.

Univision, now based in Miami, is promoting PrendeTV as the first U.S. streaming service stocked entirely with Spanish-language programming.

Unlike many of its competitors — including Netflix, FuboTV, Sling TV and AT&T TV — the PrendeTV app can be downloaded and watched for free. Univision believes ad-supported platforms will have the biggest potential for growth, and it has signed up such major advertisers as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Toyota, and Walmart to help support the programming, according to Univision’s president and chief transformation officer, Pierluigi Gazzolo.

Univision’s high-stakes gamble on streaming comes amid declines in traditional television viewership. Its longtime rival, Telemundo, also is seeking to engage Latinos with its offerings on NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service, which is available to consumers for $4.99 a month.

Univision’s new service provides live streams of its two over-the-air broadcast TV networks — Univision and UniMas — but not the company’s popular cable TV channels.

At launch, the service will offer 40 entertainment channels, including movies, sports and kids’ programming. It also will have 11,000 hours of on-demand library content.