Spanish-language Univision TV holds own against big networks

Spanish-language network Univision, with stations in just 26 of the nation's 200 or so TV markets, beat NBC's prime-time ratings during the February sweeps for the first time.

The surprising win pointed out both the shifting patterns of TV consumption in the United States and the tenuous recovery at Comcast Corp.-owned NBC TV.

"This is the new American reality," Cesar Conde, president of Univision Networks, said in a recent interview. "Univision is seeing consistent growth while our English-language counterparts are struggling with eroding audiences."

After about 50 years of Spanish-language TV, Univision is entering the mainstream, he said.

Other TV executives dispute that assertion, saying the Big Four broadcast-TV networks - ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox - don't target Spanish speakers. But there's no denying that Univision has momentum with its steamy tele-novelas or that NBC's fifth-place finish with 18- to 49-year olds was a bummer for new owner Comcast. The Philadelphia cable giant acquired a controlling interest in NBCUniversal in early 2011.

NBC seemed to be mending in the fall, mostly because of the NFL football on Sunday nights and heavy promotions of NBC shows during the London Olympics. The network won the November sweeps for the first time in many years.

Then NBC, partly because of production issues, lost 10 hours of top-rated shows early this year: Sunday Night Football, The Voice, Revolution, Grimm, and Parenthood. And there were no new hits to take their places. Do No Harm bombed, and 1600 Penn was a disappointment. NBC's top prime-time shows among 18- to 49-year olds during the February sweeps were The Biggest Loser, The Office, and Chicago Fire.

NBC officials forecast a weak period but not as weak as it was, said Jon Swallen, chief research officer with Kantar Media. NBC says some of its top-rated programming is coming back into the schedule.

"This is a moment in time of a network rebuilding," said Jeff Bader, NBC president of program planning, strategy, and research.

NBCUniversal, meanwhile, has said it will grow its Spanish-language network, Telemundo. According to Nielsen, Telemundo has averaged 700,000 prime-time TV viewers this season, which began Sept. 24. Univision averaged 1.9 million audience over the same period.

Nielsen estimates there are 52 million Hispanics in the United States with $1.2 trillion in buying power.

Univision viewership is highly concentrated in New York, Los Angeles, and other urban markets with Mexican Americans and other immigrant populations. Univision says that its 26 TV markets cover about 43 percent of the U.S. TV households and that the average age of its prime-time viewer is 39. That compares with ABC, CBS, and NBC viewers, all at an average of 53 years old, and Fox at 48.

Nielsen data show that the Philadelphia-area Univision station, WUVP, has not made the same viewership gains as those in other markets. According to the February sweeps, about 20,123 households in the region's TV market watched its 11 p.m. news compared with 145,000 households tuned into NBC10.

But nationally, one TV insider said, "Univision is now pretty much in the pack." The Nielsen ratings in the 18- to 49-year-old audience for the February sweep were CBS, 4.1; ABC, 2.2; Fox, 2.1; Univision, 1.5; and NBC 1.2. Each rating point is 1 percent of people in the demographic watching the network.

Conde said market trends are leaning toward Univision. Around here, he said, "we joke the world even has a Latin pope."

February sweeps

March 4 to March 10, 2013 Key Ratings

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau 2011 Population Estimates Released May 17, 2012. 2012 National Projections Released December 2012. 2011Current Population Survey. CIA Facebook rankings based on GDP purchasing power parity, GDP Per Capita. 2010 Yankelovich. Univision Communications (ratings data),EndText