Univision Communications (also known as Univision or in Spanish, Univisión) is one of the largest Spanish language media companies and television networks in the United States. Univision is credited with turning what used to be three separate markets (Puerto Ricans in the eastern United States, Cuban-Americans in south Florida and Mexican-Americans in the southwest) into what advertisers now consider a single national Hispanic market.

Univisión's main competitor is Telemundo. Univisión has maintained a lead in ratings due in large part to Mexican telenovelas, and other programming produced by Grupo Televisa.

Its evening news program Noticiero Univisión , co-anchored by Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas, has on several occasions outrated its major network English-language network evening news competitors.

Univisión headquarters are in Los Angeles, California.

History

Univisión dates its origins to 1961, when KWEX began broadcasting to the Hispanic community in San Antonio, Texas. That station was part of the "Spanish International Network" (SIN), Univisión's predecessor.

In 1986, the Federal Communications Commission found SIN in violation of U.S. law prohibiting foreign ownership of U.S. broadcast stations. SIN's corporate parent was ordered to divest itself of its U.S. subsidiary, and SIN was sold to Hallmark Cards and renamed Univision. Under Hallmark's ownership, about half of its programming was rebroadcasts of telenovelas and other programming from Televisa, and half was original programming produced in Miami, Florida. When Hallmark sold Univision in 1992, its present owners cut a third of the Miami staff and reverted to a schedule based mostly on Televisa programs.

The company's stock has been traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 1996; it became part of the S&P 500 in February 2001.

In 2001 it acquired Puerto Rico's WLII-TV (formerly known as Tele Once), and WSTE-TV (formerly known as Super Siete).

Shows

In addition to Noticiero Univisión, its shows include:

• El Show De Cristina (a talk show conducted by Cristina Saralegui)
• Don Francisco's Sábado Gigante
• Despierta América (morning show)
• Primer Impacto (newsmagazine)
• Aquí y Ahora (a nightly investigative news magazine)

Univisión also shows live boxing fights and soccer matches such as the World Cup. Univisión has an annual award ceremony (Premios Lo Nuestro) to honor Latin musicians and actors.

Univision has contracts with two of its owners, Venezuela's Venevisión and Mexico's Televisa, to showcase some of their novelas and other shows, including the annual Miss Venezuela and Nuestra Belleza Mexico contests that choose representatives to the Miss Universe pageant.

See also

• List of United States television networks

External links and sources

• Official viewer's website, in Spanish
• Official corporate website, in English
• Univision, from the Museum of Broadcast Communications website
• Univision Blows Competition Away with Explosive February Sweep Results, a March 2005 press release