On 8 September 2003 the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of Univision Communications, Inc., the dominant Spanish language media company in the US (which owns the leading Spanish language broadcast television network, cable television network, television station group, music recording and publishing company, and Internet site) and Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation (HBC), the largest Spanish language radio operator in the US. The Commission explicitly rejected the argument that there is something unique about the needs of the Spanish speaking population in the US or about the financing, production, or distribution of Spanish language programming for US household, that requires a distinction to be made between Spanish language media outlet and other media outlets. The Hispanic community is the largest minority community in the US, but it is not linguistically homogeneous. Although most Hispanics speak English well, almost 8 million Hispanics speak English either 'not at all' or 'not well'. Survey data indicate that Latino household tend to watch television as a family, rather than as individuals; when family members have varying levels of English proficiency, the family is likely to watch Spanish language programming -- particularly for news -- to accommodate those with limited understanding of English. As a result, more than half of all bilingual (Spanish-English) Latino adults prefer to watch primarily Spanish-language news programming on television. This book provides detailed tables of demographic, viewing, and market information on the Spanish-speaking population as well as detailed analysis of public policy issues.

In the first history of Spanish-language television in the United States, Craig Allen traces the development of two prominent yet little-studied powerhouses, Univision and Telemundo. Allen tells the inside story of how these networks fought enormous odds to rise as giants of mass communication, questioning monolingual and Anglo-centered versions of U.S. television history.

With the rise of Spanish language media around the world, no reference work is available that provides an overview of the field or its emerging issues. The Handbook of Spanish Language Media is intended to fill that need. The goal is to establish a Handbook that will become the definitive source for scholars interested in this emerging field of study; not only to provide background knowledge of the various issues and topics relevant to Spanish Language media, but also to establish directions for future research in this rapidly growing area.

Since its introduction in the early 1960s, Spanish-language television in the United States has grown in step with the Hispanic population. Industry and demographic projections forecast rising influence through the 21st century. This book traces U.S. Spanish-language television’s development from the 1960s to 2013, illustrating how business, regulation, politics, demographics and technological change have interwoven during a half century of remarkable change for electronic media. Spanish-language media play key social, political and economic roles in U.S. society, connecting many Hispanics to their cultures of origin, each other, and broader U.S. society. Yet despite the population’s increasing impact on U.S. culture, in elections and through an estimated $1.3 trillion in spending power in 2014, this is the first comprehensive academic source dedicated to the medium and its history. The book combines information drawn from the business press and trade journals with industry reports and academic research to provide a balanced perspective on the origins, maturation and accelerated growth of a significant ethnic-oriented medium.

Reinventing the Latino Television Viewer: Language, Ideology, and Practice examines how the relationship between language, power, and industry practice is reshaping the very concept of Hispanic television. Chávez argues that as established mainstream networks enter the Hispanic television space, they are redefining the Latino audience in ways that more closely resemble the mainstream population, leading to auspicious forms of erasure that challenge the legitimacy of Spanish altogether. This book presents the integration of English into the Hispanic television space not as an entirely new phenomenon, but rather as an extension of two ongoing practices within the television industry—the exploitation of consumer markets and the suppression of Latino forms of speech.

The first history of Spanish-language television in the United States In the most comprehensive history of Spanish-language television in the United States to date, Craig Allen traces the development of two prominent yet little-studied powerhouses, Univision and Telemundo. Allen tells the inside story of how these networks fought enormous odds to rise as giants of mass communication within an English-dominated society. The book begins in San Antonio, Texas, in 1961 with the launch of the first Spanish-language station in the country. From it rose the Spanish International Network (SIN), which would later become Univision. Conceived by Mexican broadcasting mogul Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta and created by unsung American television pioneers, Unvision grew to provide a vast amount of international programming, including popular telenovelas, and was the first U.S. network delivered by satellite. After Telemundo was founded in the 1980s by Saul Steinberg and Harry Silverman, the two networks battled over audiences and saw dramatic changes in leadership. Today, Univision and Telemundo are multibillion-dollar television providers that equal ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox in scale and stature. While Univision remains a beacon of U.S. television’s internationalization, Telemundo—owned by NBC—is a worldwide leader in producing Spanish-language programs. Using archival sources and original interviews to reconstruct power struggles and behind-the-scenes intrigue, Allen uses this exciting narrative to question monolingual and Anglo-centered versions of U.S. television history. He demonstrates the endurance, innovation, and popularity of Spanish-language television, arguing that its story is essential to understanding the Latinx history of contemporary America. A volume in the series Reframing Media, Technology, and Culture in Latin/o America, edited by Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste and Juan Carlos Rodríguez