Univision Plans SVOD Streamer, Expanded AVOD Offering for 2022 in OTT Expansion

At the end of March, Univision took the wraps off PrendeTV, the company’s free, ad-supported streaming service aimed at super-serving Spanish-language programming fans in the U.S. Now the company is planning to roll out a new unified streaming service that will include a new subscription tier on top of an expanded free tier, anchored by the current PrendeTV offering. The new two-tiered service will debut next year in both the U.S. and Latin America, Univision said in a statement on Monday. It will give Univision the opportunity to serve the advertisers interested in targeting the U.S. Hispanic market while capitalizing on an increasing willingness from consumers to pay a fee for access to premium content. The SVOD (subscription video on demand) service—whose name, price and launch date will be announced later in the year—will be built from assets of both Univision and Mexican media giant Televisa, which announced a $4.8 billion merger in April that stands to reshape the Spanish-language media landscape upon its expected close. The streamer will look to combine the best features of PrendeTV, Univision Now and the free Spanish-language streamer Vix, which Univision acquired earlier this year, into a single service and brand. Meanwhile, the free AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) tier of the new offering will be anchored by PrendeTV and will look to offer up some of the features of broadcast Spanish-language television alongside some on-demand features. That tier will have more than 100 linear channels and more than 40,000 hours of programming, including live sports and a 24/7 news service, along with a select few originals, major studio films and library titles. Rafael Urbina, Univision’s evp and gm of AVOD streaming, will remain at the head of Prende and will also lead the direction of the new ad-supported tier domestically and internationally. As for the premium subscription tier, it will feature more than 6,000 hours of Spanish-language content, including more than 30 original productions that will live exclusively on the service in its first year of availability. Some of those original productions include an adaptation from Peruvian novelist and Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa and a new show from bestselling Spanish writer Maria Dueñas, along with other projects anchored in Televisa’s content studio, the largest Spanish-language studio in the world. The subscription tier will be helmed by newly appointed evp and gm of SVOD streaming Rodrigo Mazon, who joins from Netflix, where he served as VP of content and as director of content acquisition. Previously, he worked at Hulu, where he was director of content acquisition. A 'quantum leap' for Univision “Today’s announcement is a quantum leap in Univision’s transformation as we aggressively scale and expand our streaming capabilities to bring thousands of hours of premium, original content to the nearly 600 million Spanish speakers around the world,” Pierluigi Gazzolo, Univision’s president and chief transformation officer at Univision, said in a statement. “We are excited to announce our new SVOD service as a powerful cornerstone of this strategy, providing us the opportunity to reach global audiences with high-quality, original programming from distinguished producers and top talent not available anywhere else. With PrendeTV, and now with our SVOD offering, Univision is uniquely positioned to satisfy the global demand for premium Spanish-language content, the last truly meaningful open lane in global video streaming.” Univision’s plans for the streaming service come as streamers look to corner the U.S. Hispanic market, which makes up nearly 20% of the entire U.S. population and is expected to have an estimated $2.3 trillion buying power by 2024. U.S. Hispanics also over-index in major subscription streaming service use, according to Nielsen. It also comes as Univision, led by former Viacom chief financial officer Wade Davis, looks to dramatically transform its company to capitalize on the growing opportunity presented by the fast-growing streaming space. The company is scooping up talent from across the streaming space, including ex-Disney+ global head of product Michael Cerdá, who recently joined Univision as evp of product and engineering and streaming. Earlier this year, the company hired Donna Speciale, the former ad sales chief of WarnerMedia, to direct the company’s ad sales and marketing strategy and capitalize on the “huge opportunity” presented by its push into streaming. Streamers Set Eyes on Next Big Task: Winning Over the Fast-Growing Hispanic Market