It’s official. Univision will be entering the streaming wars with their own offering titled PrendeTV (Spanish word for “switch on”). The company announced this morning that the upcoming free, ad-supported service will launch at some point in the first quarter. It will feature premium 100 percent Spanish-language programming.
“PrendeTV is an important, early step in Univision’s broader efforts to build the same leadership position we have in Spanish-language TV, in the emerging Spanish-language streaming space,” said Univision CEO Wade Davis.
PrendeTV will offer Hollywood blockbusters, global television series, novelas, comedies, classic sports, documentaries, lifestyle shows and children’s programming, to Univision and Televisa’s exclusive libraries of programming not available on any other streaming platform.
“The announcement of PrendeTV within two weeks of closing our acquisition of Univision underscores our focus and commitment to rapidly driving the transformation and growth of the company. PrendeTV is unlike anything our audience has access to today and will completely change the landscape for video streaming in Spanish-language media in the United States.”
Similar to Pluto TV and Tubi, PrendeTV will launch with over 30 linear channels and 10,000 hours of video-on-demand programming in Spanish from global content partners to serve consumers who are eager for more easily accessible content in-language and in-culture. The service will continue to grow and expand its premium content offering in the coming months.
The service will be available at launch via Prende.TV on desktop and mobile web, and via free mobile and connected TV apps. The company will announce launch partners at a later date.
In fact, new Univision CEO was CFO of Viacom when it acquired free streaming service Pluto TV.
News that Univision will be entering the streaming space first came out in Dec. Bloomberg reported that the upcoming streaming service is company CEO Wade Davis’ top priority as he believes the U.S. Hispanic audience is not getting their full due in the sea of streamers currently available.
Over the past year, both Tubi and Pluto TV have launched Spanish-language offerings.
Univision previously launched Univision Now, which features content from Univision and UniMás, as well as soccer highlights, horoscopes, news and telenovela recaps. However, Davis believes there hasn’t been enough push to make it a competitor in the current market, sources told Bloomberg.