Univision’s New Network Revises Its Programming

After a steep slide in February ratings, Spanish-language TV broadcasting giant Univision Communications Inc. is revamping its programming schedule just two months after launching its second broadcast network, TeleFutura.

Univision introduced TeleFutura on Jan. 14 with the idea of offering viewers different programs without directly competing with those found on the Univision flagship network. So TeleFutura has been using a mix of sports, Hollywood movies and music videos to attract younger bilingual viewers who traditionally watch English-language television, and until this week its prime-time schedule was filled with dubbed Hollywood movies.

But after losing nearly a third of its original audience in February, TeleFutura this week added an entertainment variety show and a soap opera, or telenovela, to its prime-time lineup. The move signals a dramatic departure from Univision’s earlier strategy to avoid broadcasting soap operas at night on TeleFutura out of fear that it might steal viewers from the Univision network, which is stocked with evening novelas.

David Joyce, a broadcast analyst with Guzman & Co., downgraded Univision’s stock to “neutral” Wednesday because TeleFutura programming changes represent “a reversion to the historical Spanish-language network programming.... It could create more cannibalization of the main Univision network audience.”

Joyce also noted that Univision’s network President Ray Rodriguez this week sold 150,000 shares when the stock was trading at more than $46 a share, which contributed to the analyst’s decision to downgrade.

Univision shares closed at $43.97 on Wednesday, down 53 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.

Rodriguez declined to comment on his stock sale. Instead, he downplayed the TeleFutura changes.

Although TeleFutura ratings “dipped” during the February sweeps period, Rodriguez said that the ratings had improved during the last two weeks and that TeleFutura had boosted Univision’s overall market share in Spanish-language broadcasting.

“We have hit a home run with TeleFutura, and the network has only been on the air two months,” Rodriguez said. “None of these changes are a retreat from our strategy; they’re just programming changes.”

The 10 p.m. soap opera on TeleFutura will not compete with novelas on the Univision network because there are none in that time slot, Rodriguez said. He said TeleFutura’s prime-time “El Inutil” (The Useless) will compete only against rival network Telemundo.

“We told people that we would take some audience away from Telemundo, and we’ve done that. But most important, we’ve taken audience away from the English-language networks,” Rodriguez said.

“TeleFutura is 6% of Univision’s revenues,” said David W. Miller, a senior media analyst with Sanders Morris Harris in Los Angeles. “It’s not a huge network. We see this as more of a dent in the quarterly earnings, not a long-term problem.”