Months before the World Cup's first whistle, Juan Carlos Rodriguez, the division of Univision Commun...

1. Largest Winner in World Cup Media? Easily Univision
Months before the World Cup's first whistle, Juan Carlos Rodriguez, the division of Univision
Communications' leader, offered difficult: can his engineers learn the best way to beam its soccer
programs into American houses faster than its english language adversaries to them?
About a half-million bucks in new technology after, the process was met -- broadcasts that were
Univision's beat beat ABC's and ESPN's, only if by a matter of seconds.
For Mr. Rodriguez, that felt like enough to entice away some viewers. He mentioned from Brazil in a
interview.
The World Cup has been a record-breaking function for Univision, that has ruled its TV opponents in
several of America's largest cities -- Los Angeles, Miami. It even won the New York market for a few
games.
Edgar Martinez of Univision planning for a broadcast. The World-Cup has set viewing records for the
media company. Credit Lianne Milton
The amounts serve as a kind of exclamation point in the sharp growth of Us's Hispanic population
throughout the past two decades. It's a market shift that is clear in voting employment patterns and
tendencies. Today the World-Cup has demonstrated how it is reshaping the media landscape too.
A confluence of factors that were additional -- some deliberate, some serendipitous -- have worked to
the network's edge. Scores of soccer fanatics utilized Univision's free streaming to covertly see
games on their office computers or cells. Some of Latin American groups, including Costa Rica and
Mexico, performed surprisingly well in the tournament. And some low-Hispanic viewers simply
prefer the network's excitable commentators, who perform themselves into a frenzy every time a
participant crosses midfield with the basketball, never head drives it into the back part of the
internet: "Mamita querida que GOOOLLLAZZZOO!"
The unparalleled publicity it has received from the World-Cup cannot have come at a better moment
for Univision. All through a private equity boom in 2007, his group got Univision for $13.7 billion in
a bid battle orchestrated by the firm's biggest stockholder and former chairman, A. Jerrold
Perenchio. Mr. Perenchio, an one-time Hollywood agent, noticed the potential of Spanish Language
television in 1992, when he bought Univision for only $500 million.
Mr. Saban and his partners are now investigating the possibility of a deal in the center of a flurry of
enormous media business mergers. In recent months, his partners have spoken to no less than two
big firms, Time Warner and CBS, about marketing Univision for around $20 million. They're also
contemplating an initial public offering of stock.
Twenty million dollars will be a high-price for a Spanish Language media business. But on any given
night , telenovelas -- narratives of cash, love, sex and betrayal, imported only from Mexico -- can
attract more viewers than English-language sites like NBC and Fox. The community confirmed its
political sway when a newsgroup that was presidential was hosted by it over the past strategy, and it
truly is poised to play with an even larger part in the 2016 race.
Univision, that was started in 1955 as a neighborhood TV station, is today a sprawling media

2. conglomerate based in New York, reaching nearly 100 million tv households across America.
"We are viewed as a Spanish-language broadcaster that mainly plays with Telemundo," the
corporation's CEO, Randy Falco, stated. "But in my view, we should really be competing with the
english language systems because progressively we will have an audience that may exceed them."
Mr. Falco, who took charge at Univision 36 months ago after senior positions at NBC and AOL,
embodies the company's desire to be seen as a mainstream media company. Mr. Falco is a-60-year
old Bronx native who will not talk Spanish.
Yet precisely the same shifting demographics which help Univision also threaten its dominance.
Additional media businesses are now striving to achieve the expanding Hispanic population, such as
Telemundo, which has the powerful resources of its parent company behind it.
Telemundo outbid Univision for the 2022 and 2018 World Cups, splitting the Spanish Language
monopoly Univision has held over the tournament. Telemundo has additionally been investing
heavily in its own telenovelas. CBS's biggest success at the moment, "El Senor p los Cielos" ("The
Master of the Skies"), about a Mexican drug lord, sometimes draws bigger audiences than
Univision's fighting drama in precisely the same time-slot. Not long before, that might have been
impossible, according to Spanish-language TV experts.
"If I were Univision at this time, I'd be asking myself, Where are we headed?" stated Emiliano
Saccone, the former head of MundoFox, yet another comparative newcomer to the Hispanic
marketplace. "Can we sustain our realm the way we've for the last 50 years? My feeling is, maybe
not always."
Assimilation introduces a much better long-term danger. More Hispanics are now born in the USA
every year than immigrate to the state. Many develop multilingual and recognize themselves
culturally as American. Univision will need to compete for his or her focus alike, with every-other
media outlet and British.