Spanish-language TV giant launches streaming service
By Meg James
Univision Communications is making an ambitious push into streaming with PrendeTV, an advertising-supported Spanish-language service with more than three dozen live channels and a deep library of on-demand programs.
The launch comes 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.
Univision, based in Miami, is promoting PrendeTV as the first U.S. streaming service stocked entirely with Spanishlanguage programming.
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, Chase bank and Walmart to help support the programming, according to Univision’s president and chief transformation officer, Pierluigi Gazzolo.
Univision’s 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 $4.99 a month.
Univision’s new service provides livestreams of its two over-the-air broadcast TV networks — Univision and UniMas — but not the company’s popular cable TV channels.
The service will offer more than 40 entertainment channels. It will have 11,000 hours of on-demand content, which includes shows from Univision and Mexico City-based Grupo Televisa, as well as Brooklyn-based FilmRise and Caracol TV in Colombia and Rede Globo in Brazil.
Prende will eventually have more than 150 films from Hollywood studios.
At launch, the service will have nine telenovela channels; seven movie channels, including “Cine Boom” and “Cine Hollywood”; and three family channels. It also will offer soccer channels including “Liga Mex” and “Futbol Europeo.”
PrendeTV will be available to users of Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and iPhone, as well as Google’s Android phones and TV. Gazzolo said Univision is negotiating with Roku.
This isn’t Univision’s first foray into streaming. The broadcaster experimented with platforms devoted to the company’s programming, including its melodramatic soap operas. And nearly two months ago, Univision bought another ad-supported independent streaming platform — VIX TV — which has over 20,000 hours of Spanish-language programming. Univision plans to combine VIX with PrendeTV.