Univision preps digital network for summer launch

Univision is ramping its Spanish-language TV Everywhere service, the UVideos Digital Network, to launch this summer. The programming will be available via the Web site and apps for smartphones and tablets, which will also offer "second-screen" experiences through social media and companion content. Univision President and CEO Randy Falco said that UVideos Digital "will enable advertisers to reach Hispanics on a centralised platform." Univision claims 94% of the U.S. Hispanic audience watches TV live, rather than on a digital or time-shifted basis. So, the platform will be additive rather than cannibalising. "If marketers want to tap into the growth that the Hispanic community offers," Falco said, "they have to come to us." Univision also said that it will launch a series of thematic broadband channels, and will work with content partner Televisa on an Internet-only telenovela, and has two more planned with Kate del Castillo, lately of CSI: Miami.