Univision Sticking With Its Successful Format for the Fall

Univision unveiled its fall television lineup Wednesday afternoon in a drawn-out three-hour presentation for advertisers in New York City with a lineup featuring few changes from last fall’s schedule.

In fact, the network spent most of Wednesday’s presentation on the growth its current programming has generated. Over the past year, Univision’s audience has increased 25% in weeknight prime time and 40% weekday afternoons in its target 18-49 demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research. As a result, Univision remains the country’s dominant Spanish-language broadcaster with more than 11 times the audience of Telemundo, its only national Spanish-language rival.

The recent audience growth has been driven by Univision’s three-hour weeknight schedule of imported telenovelas--soap operas that play more like a miniseries during their 20-week runs; a checkerboard of talk, news and comedy shows at 10 p.m.; and an early afternoon schedule that makes use of all four types of programming, executives said.

But while the programming format isn’t changing, some of the programs are. Among the imported novelas expected to air in the fall are “Nunca te Olvidare”; “Rosalinda,” starring pop singer Thalia, whose telenovela “Maria la del Barrio” set a ratings record when it aired in Los Angeles two years ago; “El Privilegio de Amar,” one of Mexico’s most-watched shows this spring, featuring Adela Noriega; and the child novela “El Diario de Daniela,” featuring Daniela Lujan, whose previous novela “Luz Clarita” was the most successful kids’ drama in the short history of Spanish-language TV in the U.S.

Also surviving for another season is the morning news/information show “Despierta America,” which was rumored to have been on the chopping block in winter. Although the show’s audience continues to grow in certain demographics, it has lost ground overall to Telemundo’s morning block of Nickelodeon cartoons, which debuted in November.