UniMás (, stylized as ''UNIMÁS'', and originally known as TeleFutura from its launch on January 14, 2002, to January 6, 2013) is an American Spanish
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
television network
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...
owned by
TelevisaUnivision
TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American media company headquartered in New York and Mexico City, which owns the American Spanish language broadcast network Univision. 45% of the company is held by the ...
. The network's programming, which is aimed at
Hispanic Americans
Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spanish and/or Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include all Americans who identify a ...
in the 18-34 age range, includes
telenovela
A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...
s and other
serialized drama series,
sports
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...
,
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
s, reruns of imported series previously aired on parent network
Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
,
reality
Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...
and
variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
series, and theatrically released
feature films
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
(primarily consisting of
Spanish-dubbed versions of American movie releases).
The network is operated out of Univision's South Florida headquarters in the
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
suburb of
Doral, Florida
Doral is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. One of 34 municipalities in the county, it is located west of Miami International Airport and west of Downtown Miami. Doral occupies bordered on the west by the Ronald Reagan Tu ...
. Since its launch, the network has made major inroads in overall and demographic viewership, eventually ranking as the second highest-rated Spanish-language television network in key dayparts,
behind only sister network
Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
, by 2012.
UniMás is available on
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
and
satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
throughout most of the United States, with local stations in over 40 markets with large Hispanic and Latino populations. Most of these stations are pass-throughs for the network's main programming feed, offering limited to no exclusive local programming. Univision Communications
chief operating officer
A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...
Randy Falco
Randel A. Falco (born December 26, 1953) is an American media executive. Falco was president and CEO of Univision Communications Inc. from June 2011 until retiring in June 2018. Before joining Univision in January 2011 as Executive Vice President ...
has overseen the network's operations since his appointment in the position by the company on June 29, 2011.
History
Origins
The network traces its origins to
Barry Diller
Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall of ...
's November 1995 acquisition of the
Home Shopping Network
HSN, an initialism of its former name Home Shopping Network, is an American free-to-air television network owned by the Qurate Retail Group, which also owns catalog company Cornerstone Brands. Based in the Gateway area of St. Petersburg, Flor ...
and its broadcasting arm Silver King Communications, which owned television stations affiliated with HSN in several larger
media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
s. In June 1998, the renamed
USA Broadcasting
USA Broadcasting was an United States of America, American television broadcasting company owned by the veteran entertainment industry executive Barry Diller. This company was the over-the-air broadcasting arm of USA Networks. Before founding US ...
(which had been merged into the Diller-owned
USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
s in 1997) launched a customized
independent station
An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
format, "CityVision", which infused syndicated programming – including a few produced by sister production unit
Studios USA
Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a predece ...
that also aired nationally on USA Network – with a limited amount of local entertainment and magazine programs (reminiscent of the format used by
CITY-TV
CITY-DT (channel 57) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the Citytv network. It is owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media alongside Omni Television outlets CFMT-DT (chan ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and more prominently, its co-owned stations that became charter outlets of
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Ass ...
, when
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in 1954. CHU ...
expanded the format to other
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
markets as a
television system
In Canada, a television system is a group of television stations which share common ownership, branding and programming, but which for some reason does not satisfy the criteria necessary for it to be classified as a television network under Cana ...
in 2002). USA's
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
outlet, WYHS-TV, served as the test station for the format, disaffiliating from HSN and converting into a general entertainment outlet under the new call letters
WAMI-TV
WAMI-DT (channel 69) is a television station licensed to Hollywood, Florida, United States, serving the Miami area with programming from the Spanish-language UniMás network. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Univision outle ...
.
By September 2000, USA Broadcasting had expanded the "CityVision" entertainment format to three of its thirteen other HSN outlets – with some of the stations adopting call letters referencing common nicknames for their home cities – WHOT-TV (now
WUVG-DT
WUVG-DT (channel 34) is a television station licensed to Athens, Georgia, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Univision and UniMás networks to the Atlanta area. Owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision, the station maintains studios ...
) in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
,
KSTR-TV
KSTR-DT (channel 49) is a television station licensed to Irving, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language UniMás network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Garland-licens ...
in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
–
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
and WHUB-TV (now
WUTF-DT
WUTF-TV (channel 27) is a television station licensed to Worcester, Massachusetts, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language UniMás network to the Boston area. It is owned by Entravision Communications, which provides certain services t ...
) in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. Before the group could carry out the proposed conversions of its other stations into independent stations, USA Networks announced that it would sell off its television station group in the summer of 2000, to focus on its cable network and television production properties. Among the prospective buyers for the thirteen-station group were
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
(which would have created
duopolies with
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
s in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
and
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
) and
Univision Communications
TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American media company headquartered in New York and Mexico City, which owns the American Spanish language broadcast network Univision. 45% of the company is held by the ...
(which would create duopolies with Univision owned-and-operated stations in
those same four
4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures.
In mathematics
Four is the smallest c ...
cities
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
); the latter purchased the USA Broadcasting stations for $1.1 billion on December 7, 2000, with the sale being finalized on May 21, 2001.
TeleFutura
On May 15, 2001, during Univision's
upfront presentation, Univision Communications announced its intentions to form a then-unnamed secondary television network that would compete with Univision, Telemundo and the then-recently launched
Azteca América
Azteca América (, sometimes shortened to Azteca) is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by INNOVATE Corp., which acquired the network from the Azteca International Corporation subsidiary of TV Azteca.
Headquartered ...
. Organizational plans for the network called for the recently acquired former USA Broadcasting stations to serve as the network's nuclei, with its programming catering to bilingual Latinos with a preference toward watching English-language television programs, as well as young adult males between the ages 18 and 34 that seldom watch Spanish language television other than sporting events; Univision executives expected the network to reach 80% of all Hispanic and Latino households throughout the U.S. that own at least one television set by the time of its launch. Although Univision maintained a dominant market share among the American Spanish language television networks (holding an 83% share of Latino viewers during prime time at the time), Univision Communications executives did not believe that a second network would result in a cannibalization of the flagship network's market share.
On July 31, 2001, Univision announced that TeleFutura would be the name for the new network, with Univision Communications chairman and
chief executive officer A. Jerrold Perenchio noting the name was suggested in part by two of corporate employees to "represent
the future of Spanish-language television". Univision continued to run the nine HSN affiliates and four independent stations (one of which regained its affiliation with HSN earlier that year) as English language outlets for several months following the USA Broadcasting purchase.
TeleFutura formally launched at 7:00 p.m.
Eastern Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small port ...
on January 14, 2002, debuting initially on 18 Univision-owned stations (consisting of twelve former USA Broadcasting stations – an additional station,
WQHS-TV
WQHS-DT (channel 61) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Univision and UniMás networks. Owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision, it is the only full-power Spanish-language television st ...
in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, was converted into an owned-and-operated station of parent network
Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
instead; it would later carry UniMás on a subchannel) – and six others that Univision Communications acquired afterward) and 24
affiliates
In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or ...
owned by other companies.
Initial programming on the network – which was
counterprogrammed to offer distinct programs that do not directly compete with shows aired on Univision – included ''Escándalo TV'' ("Scandal TV"; the program was originally titled ''Escándalo en el Medio Dia'', before being changed due to the existence of a similarly titled Mexican program produced by
Televisa
Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content.
In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...
), a three-hour gossip/entertainment program designed to compete with similar newsmagazines such as
Telemundo
Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language Terrestrial television, terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a divi ...
's ''
Cotorreando'' (and ran on the network until October 2011); and the daytime talk show ''Monica''.
The remainder of TeleFutura's programming consisted of imported
telenovela
A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...
s from
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
n production companies with which Univision maintained programming agreements including
Televisa
Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content.
In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...
,
Venevisión
Venevisión () is a Venezuelan free-to-air television channel and one of Venezuela's largest television networks, owned by the Cisneros Media division of Grupo Cisneros.
History
The company's roots date back to June 1, 1953, with the establish ...
, Coral Productions,
RCTV
Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) was a Venezuelan free-to-air television network headquartered in the Caracas neighborhood of Quinta Crespo. It was sometimes referred to as the Canal de Bárcenas. Owned by Empresas 1BC, Radio Caracas Televisió ...
,
RCN and
Rede Globo
TV Globo (, "Globe TV", or simply Globo), formerly known as Rede Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air Television broadcasting, television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Gr ...
, which aired only on weekday afternoons at its launch. Evenings and weekends primarily consisted of feature films, consisting exclusively of dubbed Spanish prints of American releases from the 1980s onward, as part of the umbrella showcases "CinePlex" (for daytime movies, usually those airing on weekends), "CinEscape" (for late night movies), "Cine Especial" (for special movie presentations) or "Cine de las Estrellas" (for prime time movies). The network also featured news and sports updates during prime time, as well as several sports programs and events including ''
Contacto Deportivo
''Contacto Deportivo'' is an American Spanish-language sports news program. Previously airing on UniMas, the program airs nightly at midnight on Univision and Univision Deportes Network.
In September 2015, Univision Communications announced tha ...
'' ("Contact Sports"), an hour-long weeknight sports news program; weekly
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
matches on Friday nights; and soccer matches from
Liga MX
The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year.
The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...
on weekend afternoons.
On June 27, 2006, Univision Communications was acquired by Broadcasting Media Partners Inc. – a consortium of
investment firm
An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under t ...
s led by the
Haim Saban
Haim Saban (; he, חיים סבן; born October 15, 1944) is an Israeli-American media proprietor, investor, and producer of records, film, and television. A businessman with interests in financial services, entertainment, and media, and an e ...
-owned
Saban Capital Group
Saban Capital Group LLC is an American investment firm based in Los Angeles, California focused on media, entertainment, and communications investments. Formed in 2010 by Haim Saban, Saban Capital Group owns Saban Films, part of Univision Commu ...
(which had previously owned
Saban Entertainment
Saban Entertainment, Inc. (along with Saban International; currently operating under the legal name is BVS Entertainment, Inc.) was a worldwide-served independent American-Israeli television production company formed in 1980 by Haim Saban and S ...
until its sale to
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
in June 2001, as part of
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...
's sale of
Fox Family Worldwide
ABC Family Worldwide is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Television that is responsible for the operations of the U.S. cable network Freeform.
The company was originally formed as International Family Entertainment, a spin-off of the Christian Broad ...
),
TPG Capital, L.P.
TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth ...
,
Providence Equity Partners
Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. is a specialist private equity firm, private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, education, technology investments across North America and Europe. The firm specializes in growth-oriented pri ...
,
Madison Dearborn Partners
Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts of privately held or publicly traded companies, or divisions of larger companies; recapitalizations of family-owned or closely held companies; ba ...
and
Thomas H. Lee Partners
Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. is an American private equity firm based in Boston investing in middle market growth companies across financial technology and services, healthcare and technology & business solutions.
History
Founded in 1974 by ...
– for $12.3 billion (increasing to $13.7 billion or $36.25 per share by the sale's closure), plus the assumption of $1.4 billion in debt.
The sale received federal approval and was formally consummated on March 27, 2007.
During the February 2007
sweeps
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
period, according to
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
, TeleFutura made significant gains in viewership at the expense of Telemundo, which it overtook for second place among the major Spanish-language networks in the key demographics of Adults 18–34, Men 18–34 and Men 18–49. On February 26, 2010, TeleFutura once again ranked as the second highest-rated Spanish-language network in the United States and earned its highest ratings for an entertainment special in the network's history, with the finale of the reality competition series ''Buscando La Doble de Selena'' ("Search for
Selena
Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...
's Double"), which attracted 1.9 million total viewers. TeleFutura finished 2012 as the youngest broadcast network with a median age of 36 and finished the year averaging 642,000 total viewers aged 2 and up. It also ranked as the second highest-rated Spanish-language network in 2012 in key dayparts among Adults 18–49 and Adults 18–34.
UniMás
![Logo UniMás](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Logo_UniM%C3%A1s.svg)
On December 3, 2012, Univision Communications announced that it would relaunch TeleFutura as UniMás – which loosely translates to "Univision Plus", to underline its ties to its parent network Univision – with a programming refocusing to appeal more towards Latino males between the ages of 12 and 35 years old. The revamped network would feature Mexican and
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
n-imported programming from Televisa,
Caracol Televisión
Caracol Televisión (known as Caracol and previously as Canal Caracol) is a Colombian free-to-air television network owned by Caracol Medios, a unit of Grupo Valorem. It is one of the leading private TV networks in Colombia, alongside Canal RCN ...
and
RTI Colombia
RTI Colombia, also known as Radio Televisión Interamericana (Inter-American Radio and Television), is a Colombian television production company and former ''programadora''. It aired 14.5 hours per week of programming in 1993.
In the 1990s, as a ...
(the latter two of which compete with RCN in the domestic Colombian market), which had maintained longstanding programming and production agreements with rival Telemundo, through contracts struck months before the relaunch, it would also increase its reliance on sports content for its weekend schedule.
The new logo and brand identity, which debuted on-air at 5:00 a.m. CST on January 7, 2013 (exactly one week before the network's 11th anniversary), were created in collaboration with branding firm Troika Design Group. As part of the campaign to announce the launch, Univision Communications launched an extensive advertising campaign for UniMás that included promotional spots, digital ads, print ads and outdoor advertising in New York City, Los Angeles and Miami. The network's prime time was revamped to feature several new serial dramas formatted of a grittier nature than the romance-themed telenovelas produced by Televisa that air on Univision to appeal to male viewers including the Colombian adaptation of ''
Breaking Bad
''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited hig ...
'', ''
Metástasis''; the crime dramas ''Made in Cartagena'' and ''
¿Quién Eres Tú?'' ("Infringement"); and the boxing-themed drama ''Cloroformo'' ("Chloroform"), which were included among the relaunched network's initial prime time offerings.
On May 13, 2019, UniMás refocused its programming strategy in order to target a younger audience to that of its parent network Univision, with a focus on news, sports, unscripted entertainment and reality shows, most of them broadcast live. On that day, the station added an early edition of Noticiero Univision: Edición Nocturna at 10 p.m., coinciding with the arrival of Colombian newsreader Patricia Janiot to the broadcast, co-anchoring alongside Enrique Acevedo. On October 31, 2021, this shift was completed with the launch of a new wordmark logo and brand identity, designed, as in 2013, by Troika Design Group, and a new slogan, ''Vívelo Todo'' ("Live it All").
Programming
UniMás operates on a 126-hour network programming schedule, which it has maintained since its launch as TeleFutura in January 2002. It provides general entertainment programming to owned-and-operated and affiliated stations daily from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time. Two separate children's programming blocks known as "
Toonturama
''Toonturama'' is an American children's programming block that airs on the Spanish-language television network UniMás (formerly known as Telefutura Network) which debuted on January 15, 2002 ("Mi Tele") and January 19, 2002 ("Toonturama" and " ...
" and "Toonturama Junior" – which features some programs compliant with FCC educational programming requirements – airs for five hours each Saturday at 7:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time. All other time periods are filled with
infomercial
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...
s.
As TeleFutura, the network featured a broad mix of programming, consisting of telenovelas, sports, feature films, entertainment newsmagazines, comedy series (such as ''
¡Qué Locura!'' ("What Madness!") and ''
Chespirito
Roberto Gómez Bolaños (21 February 1929 – 28 November 2014), more commonly known by his stage name Chespirito, or "Little William Shakespeare, Shakespeare", was a Mexican actor, comedian, screenwriter, humorist, director, producer, and au ...
''),
game show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...
s (such as the ''
Family Feud
''Family Feud'' is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson. It features two families who compete to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes.
The show has had three separate runs, the ...
'' adaptations ''
¿Qué dice la gente?
''¿Qué dice la gente?'' (or ''What Do People Say?'') is a Spanish-language adaptation of the American game show ''Family Feud'' which was produced in the United States, that aired on Spanish-language channel Telefutura (now UniMás) in 2006. ...
'' ("What do the People Say?") and ''
100 Mexicanos Dijeron
''100 mexicanos dijeron'' (Spanish for ''One hundred Mexicans said''), later rebranded to ''100 mexicanos dijieron'', is a Mexican version of the Goodson-Todman game show from the 1970s, ''Family Feud'', produced in Mexico City by the Las Estrel ...
'' ("A Hundred Mexicans Said"))) and
variety series (such as ''Pepsi Música'' ("
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi was ...
Music") and ''Sabadazo''). In January 2009, TeleFutura launched the daily gossip show ''La Tijera'', hosted by Charitin Goyco, Liliana Rodriguez,
Paul Bouche
Paul Bouche is an American television host, comedian, media personality and television producer. Paul is the host, creator and producer of a variety of television and radio programs and serves as CCO (Chief Creative Officer) of Astracanada Product ...
,
Carolina Sandoval and Augusto Valverde. The hosting staff was gradually altered over its two-year run to include Tanya Charry, Raul Garcia, Anabelle Blum and Rodolfo Jimenez joining Sandoval; the show was cancelled in October 2011. On October 10, 2011, ''La Tujera'' was replaced by a daily gossip show ''
Tómbola'', while the network also debuted a late night talk show ''Noche de Perros''; due to low ratings, ''Tombola'' was cancelled on January 17, 2012, followed by ''Noche de Perros'' three months later on April 20.
Currently, the majority of UniMás' programming consists of telenovelas and series produced by Televisa (the majority of which originated on the company's flagship network in Mexico,
Canal de las Estrellas
Las Estrellas ("The Stars"; previously El Canal de las Estrellas, or "The Channel of the Stars") is one of the cornerstone networks of TelevisaUnivision, with affiliate stations all over Mexico, flagshipped at XEW-TDT in Mexico City. Many of the ...
), Caracol Televisión and RTI Colombia; several of the network's Televisa-sourced programs (including ''
Casos de Família'' ("Family Cases") and ''
El Chavo del 8
''El Chavo'' (English: ''The Kid''); — also known as ''El Chavo del Ocho'' (English: ''The Kid from number Eight'') during its earliest episodes —, is a Mexican television sitcom created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños, produced by Televisa. I ...
'') have also previously aired on parent network Univision, many having aired on that network years prior to being broadcast on UniMás. It also carries a moderate amount of first-run original programming produced by sister production unit Univision Studios, including the reality courtroom show ''Veredicto Final'' and sports magazine program ''Zona NBA''.
Notably, UniMás was to replace Telemundo as the U.S. Spanish language broadcaster of the
Miss Universe
Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that is run by a United States and Thailand based Miss Universe Organization.Natalie Tadena (July 2, 2015"Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Lands on Reelz Cable Channel". ''The Wall Stre ...
and
Miss USA
Miss USA is an American beauty pageant that has been held annually since 1952 to select the entrant from United States in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operated both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA, until 2020, ...
pageants through an agreement with the
Miss Universe Organization
Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that is run by a United States and Thailand based Miss Universe Organization.Natalie Tadena (July 2, 2015"Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Lands on Reelz Cable Channel". ''The Wall Str ...
that was signed on February 5, 2015. However, Univision Communications chose to relinquish the rights to the two pageants on June 25 of that year, as part of its decision to cut business ties with then-Miss Universe Organization co-owner
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
in response to controversial remarks he made during his June 16 speech
announcing his candidacy for the
Republican Party Presidential nomination in which Trump stated that Mexicans immigrating into the U.S. were responsible for the transporting of illegal drugs, brought crime, rapists and drug dealers into the country, and called for the
building of a wall along the
Mexico–United States border
The Mexico–United States border ( es, frontera Estados Unidos–México) is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traver ...
.
The termination of the agreement led Trump and the Miss Universe Organization to jointly file a
breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...
and defamation lawsuit against Univision Communications in the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
on June 30, 2015, seeking $500 million in damages.
News programming
The only general news program to have aired on the network to date debuted on October 17, 2005, when TeleFutura began airing ''En Vivo y Directo'' ("Live and Direct"), a half-hour early evening newscast that aired at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time (opposite a taped 4:00 p.m. news program on sister network
Galavisión
Galavisión is an American Spanish-language pay television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The network is unrelated to the earlier Mexican channel of the same name, though both broadcast Televisa-produced programming.
As of February 2015, a ...
) that featured an in-depth analysis of news stories affecting the U.S. Hispanic community. The program was cancelled in April 2006 due to low ratings, replacing the newscast with movies.
As UniMás, on September 20, 2015, the network began airing ''Fusion Presenta'' ("Fusion Presents"), a weekly block on Sunday nights consisting of Spanish-language versions of original docu-series originally aired on English language sister cable network
Fusion
Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole.
Fusion may also refer to:
Science and technology Physics
*Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...
. In November 2015, the network also began simulcasting Univision's late night newscast, ''Noticiero Univision Edición Nocturna'' on weeknights, as Univision began several simulcasting efforts to maximize its ratings, including having lead-out program ''Contacto Deportivo'' airing both on Univision and Univision Deportes Network to compete against the flagship English broadcast and the
ESPN Deportes
ESPN Deportes (, ''ESPN Sports'') is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (whi ...
Spanish version of
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
's ''
SportsCenter
''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...
''.
Sports programming
Through its association with Univision's sports division, Univision Deportes (which is also responsible for the production of sports content on
Galavisión
Galavisión is an American Spanish-language pay television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The network is unrelated to the earlier Mexican channel of the same name, though both broadcast Televisa-produced programming.
As of February 2015, a ...
and its dedicated cable-satellite sports channel
Univision Deportes Network
TUDN (pronounced tu-de-ene; formerly called Univision Deportes Network (abbr. UDN) is an American Spanish language sports channel. Owned by TelevisaUnivision, it is an extension of the company's sports division of the same name. It launched on Ap ...
), UniMás broadcasts
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
matches from
Liga MX
The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year.
The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...
(which have aired since the network's inception in January 2002) and
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
. The network has also broadcast weekly boxing matches on most Fridays for much of its history; as TeleFutura, the network debuted a new weekly boxing showcase, ''Sólo boxeo'', on April 30, 2010.
The network also served as a supplementary Spanish-language broadcaster of the
FIFA Men's and
Women's World Cups through Univision Communications' exclusive contract with
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
for the U.S. Spanish-language television rights to the tournament that concluded in
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
(Telemundo and
NBC Universo assumed the contract beginning with the
2015 Women's World Cup). As TeleFutura, it carried eight live games during the
2006 FIFA Women's World Cup, all occurring during the last days of group play when multiple games are played simultaneously (in the same capacity that
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).
ESPN2 was initially fo ...
served for English-language rightsholder
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
); the network also aired replays of tournament matches and World Cup recap shows. In 2007, TeleFutura acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast weekly Major League Soccer games on Sunday afternoons; its relationship with the league expanded in 2012, when the network aired the
MLS Cup
The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference ...
, which was watched by 485,000 viewers (a 58% increase from the 2011 final and a 109% increase over the 2010 final, both of which aired on Galavisión).
Upon the rebrand to UniMás, the network increased its sports offerings with events such as soccer matches from the
Mexico National Team
The Mexico national football team () represents Mexico in international football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (). It competes as a member of CONCACAF.
Mexico has qualified to seventeen World Cups and has qualified conse ...
and Liga MX, and the acquisition of rights to the
2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup
The 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 12th CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 22nd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's fifty years of existence. The United States was the host nation.
The competition began on 7 July 2013 at the ...
, the
2013 FIFA Confederations Cup
The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninth FIFA Confederations Cup, which was held in Brazil from 15 to 30 June 2013 as a prelude to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The most recent winners of the six continental championships appeared in the tourna ...
and
Copa América Centenario
The Copa América Centenario ( pt, Copa América Centenário, french: Coupe Amerique Centennaire, en, Centennial Cup America; literally ''Centennial America Cup'') was an international men's association football tournament that was hosted by the ...
, along with the 2014 FIFA World Cup. TeleFutura shows carried over to the relaunched UniMás included sports programs such as ''Solo Boxeo'' and the nightly sports news program ''Contacto Deportivo'' (which would eventually move to Univision after a twelve-year run on TeleFutura/UniMás on March 8, 2015).
On November 1, 2014, UniMás began airing rebroadcasts of the
El Rey Network
El Rey Network (Spanish for ''The King'') is a media brand founded by Robert Rodriguez on December 15, 2013, that is currently owned in a joint venture with FactoryMade Ventures.
Until December 31, 2020, El Rey was a cable and satellite network ...
professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...
showcase ''
Lucha Underground
Lucha Underground was an American professional wrestling promotion founded in 2014 by United Artists Media Group. Partly owned by Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), ''Lucha Underground'' also refers to its weekly television program, which featured c ...
'' on Saturday afternoons. On May 3, 2015, the network debuted a weekly sports magazine program ''Zona NBA'' ("NBA Zone"), featuring news and interviews from around the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
(NBA).
The network began airing
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
and
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...
matches in 2018 as a result of Univision acquiring the Spanish-language rights to UEFA club competitions from Fox Sports beginning with the 2018–19 season.
Children's programming
For much of its history, the bulk of TeleFutura/UniMás' children's programming was derived of mainly live-action and animated programming from American and international producers, much of which consisted of dubbed versions of series natively produced in English (including ''
Bob the Builder
''Bob the Builder'' is a British animated children's television series created by Keith Chapman for HIT Entertainment and Hot Animation. The series follows the adventures of Bob, a building contractor, specialising in masonry, along with hi ...
'', ''
Ned's Newt
''Ned's Newt'' is an animated television series created by Andy Knight and Mike Burgess and is co-produced by Nelvana and German company TMO Film GmbH (later renamed as "TMO-Loonland Film GmbH" in seasons 2-3) in conjunction with Studio B Produ ...
'' and ''
The Dumb Bunnies'').
When the network launched in 2002, TeleFutura launched three children's program blocks aimed at different audiences: "Mi Tele" ("My TV"), a two-hour animation block on weekday mornings featuring a mix of imported Spanish-language cartoons (such as ''
Fantaghiro'' and ''El Nuevo Mundo de los Gnomos'' ("The New World of the Gnomes")); and two weekend morning blocks, "
Toonturama
''Toonturama'' is an American children's programming block that airs on the Spanish-language television network UniMás (formerly known as Telefutura Network) which debuted on January 15, 2002 ("Mi Tele") and January 19, 2002 ("Toonturama" and " ...
", a three-hour lineup that mainly featured dubbed versions of American and European animated series as well as
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
series (such as ''
Flight Squad
''Flight Squad'' (''Air Academy'' in French) is an animated television series produced by the CINAR Corporation (now WildBrain), Antéfilms Productions, and Neurones Animation. The show has 26 episodes were produced.
Plot
A team of daredevil ...
'' and ''
Problem Child'', ''
Lost Universe'', ''
Tenchi Universe
is a Japanese anime television series animated by AIC and produced by Pioneer LDC. It is loosely based on the first six episodes of the ''Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki'' OVA series. The series premiered on April 2, 1995 in Japan and concluded its a ...
'' and ''
Red Baron
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...
''; ''
Toad Patrol
''Toad Patrol'' is a Canadian animated series created by George and Peggy Sarson. It premiered on October 2, 1999, on Teletoon and on September 7, 2002, on Toon Disney.
Although it was aimed at young children, it found a following among pre-t ...
'' was an exception to the dubbing as it needed to use an English dub to fix translation issues) and a two-hour companion block that preceded it on Saturday and Sunday mornings, "Toonturama Junior", featuring programs aimed at preschoolers that fulfilled
educational programming requirements defined by the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
's
Children's Television Act
The broadcast of educational children's programming by terrestrial television stations in the United States is mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under regulations colloquially referred to as the Children's Television Act (C ...
(among the programs featured on "Toonturama Junior" was ''
Plaza Sésamo
''Plaza Sésamo'' ( en, Sesame Plaza) is one of the first international co-productions of the first preschool television program ''Sesame Street''. Its first season premiered in México in 1972, and the last season ended in 2018 during the hol ...
'' ("City Square Sesame"), Televisa and
Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-know ...
's Spanish-language adaptation of ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...
'' featuring a mix of original segments featuring characters based on its U.S.-based parent series and dubbed interstitials from the aforementioned originating program, which had aired on Univision since 1995 and passed on the U.S. television rights to TeleFutura at its launch).
On September 9, 2018, in an agreement with
Animaccord, the network launched the popular Russian cartoon
Masha and the Bear
''Masha and the Bear'' (russian: Ма́ша и Медве́дь, translit=Masha i Medved ) is a Russian preschool comedy computer-animated television series created by Oleg Kuzovkov and produced by Animaccord Animation Studio, loosely based on the ...
, airing it every Sunday morning.
Stations
, UniMás has 26
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
s, and current and pending
affiliation agreements with 19 additional television stations encompassing 19 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Counting only conventional over-the-air affiliates, the network has a combined national reach of 46.54% of all households in the United States (or 145,419,291 Americans with at least one television set).
Despite Univision's over-the-air expansion since its sister network launched as TeleFutura, UniMás has been slower in expanding its national coverage through broadcast television outlets and does not have over-the-air stations in several major markets with relatively sizeable populations of Hispanic and Latino residents where Univision and/or at least one of its competing Spanish language networks have broadcast affiliates, most notably
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
;
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
;
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo ( ; Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall County ...
;
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...
; and
Midland, Texas
Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States. A small part of Midland is in Martin County.
At the 2020 census, Midland's population was 132,524. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas metropolitan ...
. Partly in order to fill these gaps, UniMás provides a national
cable network
Networking cables are networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, opt ...
feed that is distributed directly to cable, satellite and
IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, ...
providers as an alternative method of distribution in markets without either the availability or the demand for a locally based owned-and-operated or affiliate station.
The network maintains affiliations with low-power stations in a few markets, such as
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
(
WFPA-CD
WFPA-CD (channel 28) is a low-power, Class A television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language UniMás network. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Vineland, New Jersey–lic ...
),
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...
(
KBTF-CD
KBTF-CD (channel 31) is a low-power, Class A television station in Bakersfield, California, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language UniMás network. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Class A Univision outlet KABE-C ...
),
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
(
KELV-LD
KELV-LD, virtual channel 27 (UHF digital channel 15), is a low-power UniMás- affiliated television station licensed to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Owned by Entravision Communications, it is a sister station to Univision affiliate KINC (ch ...
) and
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...
(
KEVC-CD
KEVC-CD (channel 5) is a low-power, Class A television station licensed to Indio, California, United States, serving the Coachella Valley as an affiliate of the Spanish-language UniMás network. It is owned by Entravision Communications alongsi ...
). In some markets, including both of those mentioned, these stations also maintain digital simulcasts on a subchannel of a co-owned/co-managed full-power television station. UniMás also maintains a handful of subchannel-only affiliations in a few markets, the largest by market size being
WUVG-DT2 in
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, whose parent station operates as a Univision owned-and-operated station.
Currently, the
Entravision Communications Corporation
Entravision Communications Corporation is an American media company based in Santa Monica, California, Santa Monica, California. Entravision primarily caters to the Spanish language in the United States, Spanish-speaking Hispanic and Latino Ameri ...
is the largest operator of UniMás stations in terms of both numerical total and overall market reach, owning or providing services to 20 UniMás-affiliated stations, including that are relayed on subchannel of full-power sister stations and two that the company operates under
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
s with network parent Univision Communications (including stations in markets such as
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
(
WUTF-DT
WUTF-TV (channel 27) is a television station licensed to Worcester, Massachusetts, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language UniMás network to the Boston area. It is owned by Entravision Communications, which provides certain services t ...
) and
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...
(
WOTF-DT
WOTF-TV (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Grit. The station is owned by Entravision Communications, and has a tran ...
)).
Related services
Video-on-demand services
UniMás provides
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
access for delayed viewing of full episodes of the network's programming through various means, including via
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
's Hulu Latino platform through a content deal with the service. The network also a traditional VOD service – UniMás on Demand – which is carried on most traditional cable and
IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, ...
providers, which originally launched on February 1, 2011, as TeleFutura On Demand, and also offers the network's news programming, tape-delayed versions of its sports telecasts and feature film content alongside telenovelas.
Due to restrictions imposed on the streaming service by Univision Communications, Hulu limits day-after-air streaming of newer episodes of UniMás' programs to subscribers of its subscription service until eight days after their initial broadcast, in order to encourage live or same-week (via both
DVR and cable on demand) viewing. Like the video-on-demand television services provided by the other U.S. broadcast networks, UniMás on Demand disables
fast forward
To fast-forward is to move forwards through a recording at a speed faster than that at which it would usually be played, for example two times or two point five times. The recordings are usually audio, video or computer data. It is colloquially ...
ing for content provided through the service.
UVideos
Since the service launched on October 29, 2012, Univision Communications' multi-platform streaming service UVideos has made full-length episodes of UniMás' programs (including those produced by Televisa and its other content providers) available on its website at UVideos.com and companion
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
for
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
s and
tablet computer
A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...
s supporting the
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
and
Android platforms (with programs streamable over
3G and
WiFi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...
networks). The most recent episodes are usually made available for streaming on the service (as well as Univision on Demand) the day after their original broadcast to subscribers of participating pay television providers (such as
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
,
Verizon FiOS and
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
) using an
ISP
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
account via an authenticated user login. The service also includes select original digital content, user-enabled English subtitling for most programs (except for excerpts from Noticiero Univision broadcasts) as well as a social stream featuring viewer comments from the UVideos and other
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
platforms, which are time-synched to the user's local
time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
to mimic a live relay to the user as posted during the program's original broadcast.
Univision Now
On November 18, 2015, Univision Communications launched Univision Now, an
over-the-top
An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...
subscription video on demand streaming service, which features program content from both UniMás and Univision without requiring an existing pay television subscription in order to access.
The service – which is available for either $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year, although prospective users can access content through a seven-day free trial – is initially available via a dedicated website
univisionnow.com, and apps for iOS and Android devices.
The service carries UniMás' alternative series, classic series previously seen on the network and live association football matches from Liga MX and Major League Soccer; a live stream of the network's main feed is also available, and incorporates a DVR-style "rewind" feature allowing users to replay live content up to 72 hours after their broadcast. New episodes of prime time series aired on UniMás and Univision – both original content and programs from their distribution partners – are made available for streaming the day after their broadcast on the two linear television networks and are accessible for seven days following their airdate. Restrictions imposed by film studios that supply such content for the network prohibit certain movies carried on UniMás from being made available on Univision NOW.
UniMás HD
UniMás' master feed is transmitted in
1080i
1080i (also known as Full HD or BT.709) is a combination of frame resolution and scan type. 1080i is used in high-definition television (HDTV) and high-definition video. The number "1080" refers to the number of horizontal lines on the screen. ...
high definition, the native resolution format for Univision Communications' network television properties. However, twelve UniMás-affiliated stations – all but one of which is owned by Entravision Communications – currently transmit the network's programming in
480i
480i is the video mode used for standard-definition digital television in the Caribbean, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Laos, Western Sahara, and most of the Americas (with the exception of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay). The ''480 ...
standard definition
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
,
either due to technical considerations for affiliates of other major networks that carry programming from another network in high definition on their main channel or because a primary feed UniMás affiliate has not yet upgraded their transmission equipment to allow content to be presented in HD.
What was then TeleFutura launched its high definition simulcast feed at 12:02 a.m.
Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
and
Pacific Time
The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...
on January 1, 2010, on its East and West Coast flagship stations in New York City and Los Angeles,
WFUT/
WFTY-DT
WFTY-DT (channel 67) is a television station licensed to Smithtown, New York, United States, serving Long Island as an affiliate of the True Crime Network. It is owned by TelevisaUnivision alongside Newark, New Jersey–licensed UniMás co-flag ...
and
KFTR-DT
KFTR-DT (channel 46) is a television station licensed to Ontario, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area as the western flagship station of the Spanish-language UniMás network. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alon ...
(which, along with Univision, became the last two U.S. broadcast networks to begin offering their programming in HD). Most of the network's programming is presented in HD (including most telenovelas; sports programs, including soccer events; newsmagazines; and most feature films, depending on the availability of high-definition "television" cuts of films) is broadcast by the network in high definition; exceptions exist with certain telenovelas, sitcoms and variety series as well as select children's programs aired as part of the network's weekend morning children's block produced prior to 2008 that air in reruns, which continue to be presented in their native
4:3 standard definition format.
DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
began carrying the Eastern Time Zone feed of the HD simulcast nationwide on April 28, 2010; Dish Network subsequently added it two weeks later on May 12, 2010. TeleFutura's HD format was also rebranded as UniMás HD on January 7, 2013.
Controversies
Carriage disputes
On March 4, 2016, UniMás, along with its sister channels,
Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
,
Galavisión
Galavisión is an American Spanish-language pay television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The network is unrelated to the earlier Mexican channel of the same name, though both broadcast Televisa-produced programming.
As of February 2015, a ...
,
TUDN
TUDN (pronounced tu-de-ene; formerly called Univision Deportes Network (abbr. UDN) is an American Spanish language sports channel. Owned by TelevisaUnivision, it is an extension of the company's sports division of the same name. It launched on Ap ...
and
Univision tlnovelas were dropped by
AT&T U-verse
U-verse TV is a DirecTV brand of IPTV service. Launched on June 26, 2006, U-verse included broadband Internet (now AT&T Internet or AT&T Fiber), VoIP, IP telephone (now AT&T Phone), and IPTV (U-verse TV) services in 48 states. due to a
carriage dispute
A carriage dispute is a disagreement over the right to "carry", that is, retransmit, a broadcaster's signal. Carriage disputes first occurred between broadcasters and cable companies and now include direct broadcast satellite and other multicha ...
. This however, did not affect
DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
customers, despite being a subsidiary of AT&T, as they were done on a separate deal. All of Univision's channels (including UniMás) were later returned to the U-verse lineup on March 24, 2016.
On January 27, 2017,
Charter Spectrum
Spectrum is a trade name of Charter Communications, used to market consumer and commercial cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company.
The brand was first introduced in 2014; prior to that, these serv ...
(along with
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
and
Bright House, the latter merged with Charter Communications on 2016) faced another dispute with Univision, warning Charter Communications that UniMas and its sister channels could be removed from Charter by January 31, 2017. Prior to then, Univision sued Charter over pay carriage rates at the New York Supreme Court in July 2016. On, January 31, Charter customers lost access to all of Univision's channels, including UniMás and Galavision. On February 2, the New York Superior Court ordered Univision to end the blackout on Charter as negotiations continue. This blackout affects all Univision affiliates, even if Univision doesn't own them, so it included all stations owned by
Entravision Communications
Entravision Communications Corporation is an American media company based in Santa Monica, California. Entravision primarily caters to the Spanish-speaking Hispanic community and owns television and radio stations and outdoor media, in several of ...
, even if Entravision was not involved in the dispute.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unimas
UniMás
Television channels and stations established in 2002
Univision
2002 establishments in Florida