Univision Adds Site to Bridge the Divide

Univision Communications Inc. has quietly launched its own Spanish-language Internet portal, with online newscasts and shopping, which should significantly advance efforts to bridge the digital divide among immigrant Latinos.

Univision’s Internet venture also signals an end to the Spanish-language television network’s controversial blackout on “dot-com” advertising.

The Los Angeles-based network is the fastest-growing broadcaster in the U.S., holding an 83% share of the prime-time audience that watches TV in Spanish and appealing most strongly to less acculturated immigrants.

As portals and Web sites targeting Latinos in Spanish and English cropped up weekly in the last year, Univision kept its viewers in the dark on the cyber revolution with a blanket ban on all advertisements from would-be competitors.

But now that the network has launched its own venture, it is expected to devote plenty of air time to educate consumers on computer use and aggressively promote its own Web site, along with low-priced hardware and software deals with major manufacturers. The publicity will reach millions of immigrants who have been among the country’s least connected.

The company has not indicated, however, whether it will drop its ban on competitor’s dot-com advertising.

“By focusing on this new target, [Univision] promises to really drive a nail in the coffin of what everyone has been talking about as the digital divide,” said Carl Kravetz, CEO of Cruz/Kravetz Ideas, Los Angeles and chairman of the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies’ Hispanic committee.

In keeping with a long-standing policy, network officials declined to comment on the launch.

But sources familiar with the venture say Univision will begin heavily promoting its site in Los Angeles as early as next week, advertising on its own network and passing out free discs at retail outlets that include Radio Shack, Macy’s and Sears.

Through partnerships with IBM and software manufacturers, Univision.com is also expected to offer a PC and ISP package loaded with the Univision.com home page for $30 a month, as well as around-the-clock Spanish-language assistance through an 800 number.

While Univision will handle all marketing of the package, consumers responding to the deal will be connected directly to IBM sales offices, giving the manufacturer important access to a growing market.

The portal was launched quietly late last week after a year of rumors, delay and controversy. Competitors, advertising agencies and community leaders have been among the sharpest critics of Univision’s dot-com advertising ban, saying it not only denied them air space but kept the neediest consumers behind the technological curve.

“It probably took the Internet off everyone’s minds and retarded the development of Latinos,” said Fernando Espuelas, CEO of New York-based StarMedia Network Inc., a leading Spanish- and Portuguese-language media company and portal.

“They claim to have the interests of Latinos at heart but they don’t,” he said. “They obviously have the interests of a monopoly. They’ll destroy markets in order to dominate.”

In an earlier interview, Univision Chief Operating Officer Henry G. Cisneros said the network would reevaluate its ban once it determines how much air time to grant its own site, but “at this point . . . we have not wanted to clutter our own air--distract from our site.”

But even detractors such as Espuelas say Univision’s promotion of its own venture will educate consumers and thereby boost the prospects of the dozens of Web sites and portals vying for Latinos.

Ditto for those hardware manufacturers and retail outlets who are not partnered with Univision, said Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, president and co-founder of Enlace Communications, a Los Angeles ad agency that helps clients reach the Latino market.

“Univision finally putting out the message that they too are part of the Internet revolution will get more consumers into the Circuit Cities and the CompUSAs, looking at computers in a different light,” she said.

Much has been made of the digital divide among Latinos and African Americans, but the gap between haves and have-nots is most pronounced by income, not ethnicity. Households earning $75,000 or more tend to have computers at the same rates. But as income drops, ethnic gaps become more pronounced.

According to research by Los Altos-based Access Worldwide Cultural Access Group, a third of white households earning between $15,000 and $35,000 have a computer, compared with only 20% of Latinos at that income level.

The trend also holds true for recently arrived Spanish-speaking immigrants. Only 13% of current Latino computer users prefer Spanish, compared with more than half of nonusers. That means Univision’s television audience--the bulk of the country’s 8.6 million Latino television households--presents a virtually untapped market at the network’s fingertips.

Univision owns and operates 19 stations, and has 33 affiliate stations and 1,029 cable affiliates in the U.S. It also owns the Galavision Spanish-language cable network. By wielding the most powerful marketing tool--its own network--Univision can shepherd consumers online.

“Low-income people tend to have low access to people who know things. It’s not an issue of money, it’s an issue of connecting with the right source of information,” said Cultural Access Worldwide Chairwoman Isabel Valdes.

“Univision’s plan provides that link by telling viewers, ‘Yes, you can get the computers, and we will have a program to help you get online,’ ” she said. “When the doors are open en espanol, with support, there should be a bounty and a windfall for all.”

At first glance, Univision.com looks much like other Spanish-language portals, with a mix of entertainment, news, shopping and chat. But it stands apart by providing its own proprietary broadband content--from streaming newscasts to updates on its popular telenovelas, or soap operas, and online chat with soap opera stars.

Chase H&Q; media analyst Vinton Vickers said Univision’s stock has held up well in a time of broadcast tumult, in part because “people have been anticipating this launch.”

Content throughout caters specifically to immigrant Latinos in the U.S., a departure from many of the portals attempting to capture Spanish-speakers here and abroad: The shopping channel--launched in a partnership with Web catalog company Fingerhut Cos.--offers online credit to a consumer base that most needs it. And the community channel features concise advice on topics such as immigration.

“It’s a totally fantastic understanding of the Hispanic public,” said Felipe Korzenny, principal and co-founder of Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Cheskin Research, which has studied the online behavior of Latinos.

“They know they don’t have credit; they are offering it online. They know they don’t have computers; they are offering them a package [of a PC and ISP]. . . . These individuals are going to hear for the first time in a strong voice [about] the Internet.”

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Digital Divide Narrows for Latinos

Latino households are acquiring computers at a faster rate than the national average. Some disparity remains, but it seems that income, more than ethnicity, is responsible. Computer ownership and Internet use rises with income level.**

Language skills also affect Internet use in Latino households. By far, the greatest number of Latino households without computers are also those in which only Spanish is spoken.