Hulu is making a play for the growing market of Hispanic TV viewers, making a multi-year deal today with Univision Communications that will bring hundreds of hours of Spanish-language novelas, variety shows, comedies, and reality series from the Univision family of networks to Hulu and Hulu Plus.
The broad deal with Univision, a top-five network and the leading media company serving Hispanic America, will give Hulu and Hulu Plus an entrée to the Hispanic market, which currently makes up about 16 percent of the U.S. population, or 50 million people, according to Census Bureau figures.
"We're really excited about working with Univision to serve the broad Hispanic audience in the U.S., enabling our advertisers to connect with a young, very fast growing part of the population who haven't yet been able to access a substantial offering of culturally relevant premium Spanish language content online," said Andy Forssell, SVP of Content Acquisition for Hulu.
Hulu users will have next-day access to a selection of current season programming, while Hulu Plus subscribers will have deeper access to current primetime episodes as well as hundreds of hours of library content.
The deal, scheduled to kick off later this year, infuses Hulu with content but also creates value for its advertisers. For Univision, it's an opportunity to monetize its content library.
"The demand for Univision's content is tremendous and this will be the first time our most popular programming will be available on the Internet," said Tonia O'Connor, president of Distribution Sales & Marketing at Univision Communications Inc. "We are pleased to enter into this landmark agreement with a partner that shares our passion for super-serving all TV fans with their favorite shows in a rich and user-friendly environment."
Univision Communications' assets include Univision Network, the most-watched Spanish-language broadcast television network in the country reaching 97% of U.S. Hispanic households, as well as an array of other programmers.
For more:
- see this release