On Jan. 31, Televisa and Univision announced a merger to create an ambitious audiovisual Spanish content platform.

¡Nace #TelevisaUnivision!

Con más de 300 mil horas de contenido y la biblioteca en español más grande del mundo, llega el nuevo gigante de contenidos. pic.twitter.com/RS3KbeJeY5

— TelevisaUnivision Prensa (@TUPrensa) January 31, 2022

“The close of our transaction marks a historic moment for our company and our industry. We are combining two iconic and market-leading companies that have a rich, shared history and an incredible portfolio of assets. This combination will create a business without comparison in the global media landscape,” said Wade Davis, CEO of TelevisaUnivision.

Vix is the name of this new streaming platform, aimed especially at audiences in Mexico and the United States, and will have a free and premium version — paid by subscription. It aspires to reach an audience of more than 100 million Spanish speakers per day with a content library that exceeds 300,000 hours. It has a wide entertainment catalog of soap operas and movies, as well as sports and news.

Premium content

In addition to its important inventory of content and live events, Vix will make a significant commitment to the creation of original productions, both with series and movies. Customers can expect to see several important names, such as Eugenio Derbez, Salma Hayek, Selena Gómez, Yalitza Aparicio, María Dueñas, Santiago Limón and Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa.

Along with Televisa's coveted catalog of soap operas, more than 3,000 soccer matches, including several from the 2022 Qatar World Cup and the Champions League, will be seen through the platform, which has set out to reach an audience in the United States and Latin America of more than 600 million. 

Although 70% of the films offered will be Mexican, Vix has also managed to seal deals with major studios like Disney, MGM and Lionsgate.

“The transaction brings together the most compelling content and intellectual property with the most comprehensive media platforms in the two largest Spanish speaking markets in the world. Televisa's four broadcast channels, 27 pay-TV channels, Videocine movie studio, Blim TV subscription video-on-demand service, and the Televisa trademark, will be combined with Univision's assets in the U.S., which include the Univision and UniMás broadcast networks, nine Spanish-language cable networks, 59 television stations and 57 radio stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets, and the PrendeTV AVOD platform,” reads a the press release.

Launch

On March 31, the free version of the platform will launch, and include commercials. For now, there is no set date for the online launch of Vix+, the premium version of the platform will present the new original content produced for the important merger and hopes to be ready by the middle of 2022. At least 50 original productions have already been announced, which would mean one premiere per week. Subscription prices have not been announced.

The statement also highlights that thanks to this strategic union “both companies have experienced growth in revenue from advertising above the market. Univision's advertising revenue for the first nine months of 2021 increased 32.6%, significantly exceeding 2019 levels, while Televisa's advertising revenue for the same period increased 24% year over year."