Univision Communications history

By the autumn of 1968 SIN had added KMEX-TV in Los Angeles, WXTV in New York City, and KPAZ-TV in Phoenix to its holdings.

SIN, in 1976, became the first network to deliver its signal by earth satellite.

However, some of those 1978 matches—10 of 38 in the final round—aired for the first time on broadcast TV in the United States, via Spanish International’s 15 stations, which then covered an estimated 72 percent of all Spanish-speaking consumers in the country.

Communications satellites greatly enhanced SIN's capabilities, enabling it to reach about two-thirds of all Hispanics in the United States by 1980, beaming 100 hours of weekly programming to ten over-the-air stations, 21 cable systems, and hundreds of CATV systems.

By 1982 all but two of the 35 all-Spanish television stations in the United States were receiving programming from SIN. About 55 percent of the programming came from Televisa, with the other 45 percent produced in the United States.

Featuring films, sports, and telenovelas, it was offering 14 hours a day of programming in early 1984.

SICC, whose revenues came to about $90 million in 1985, also owned a string of Spanish-language radio stations.

Revenues of Univision Holdings, including its network subsidiary, came to about $150 million that year. As a result, in 1987 SICC sold its ten TV stations for roughly $300 million to Hallmark Cards Inc. and its minority partner, First Chicago Venture Capital, who established Univision Holdings Inc.

In 1988 Hallmark purchased a majority stake in the Univision Network for $265 million.

The protests against Univision in Los Angeles began in May 1989, after the network announced it was consolidating its operations in Miami, where Cuban-Americans had a large presence and there were few Mexican-Americans.

When this subsidiary missed interest payments on the bonds in early 1990, Hallmark bought them back from the holders, but at a deep discount, paying only about 49 cents on the dollar.

Univision Communications Inc. was founded in 1992 by businessman A. Jerrold Perenchio,Televisa and Venevision when the Univision Network was acquired from Hallmark Cards.

At the end of 1993, Univision's revenues had reached $104.7 million.

Univision won some praise from Hispanics (as well as some criticism by non-Hispanics) for donating $100,000 in 1994 to a group fighting the ballot initiative known as Proposition 187, which sought to deny government benefits to illegal immigrants in California.

As a subsidiary of Univisa, Galavision had not been included in the sale of SIN to Hallmark, but it was acquired by Univision in July 1996.

The company's long-term debt was $481.3 million in September 1997.

In early 1998 Perenchio held 26.5 percent of the Class A common stock, while Grupo Televisa and Venevision each held 10.3 percent, plus warrants that if exercised would nearly double their stakes.

Revenues for 1999 jumped to $693.1 million, a year in which Univision's workforce grew to 1,850.

The 2000 United States Census, which Univision promotes heavily on-air and throughout its communities, reveals Hispanics to be the country's largest minority group.

In 2001, Univision Communications Inc. acquired USA Broadcasting, the station group of USA Networks, which included 13 full-power television stations.

In 2002 Univision formed TeleFutura, a new Spanish television network in the United States, with Televisa buying a sizeable (12 percent) chunk.

In 2003, Univision completed the acquisition of Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation to form Univision Radio.

By 2004 the merger with HBC had been completed and any goodwill between Univision and Televisa had turned into an all-out war for domination of the Spanish language television and radio markets.

Young Turk," in a June 2005 article, believing the legal actions and feud would only hurt both Televisa and Univision.

Hoag, Christina, "Televisa to Make Bid for Univision," Miami Herald, April 29, 2006.

In March 2007, Univision Communications Inc. was sold to Broadcasting Media Partners, Inc. which includes Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC, Providence Equity Partners Inc., TPG Capital, L.P., Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., and Saban Capital Group Inc.

In May 2008, Univision Music Group was sold to Universal Music Group and combined with its Latin label to become Universal Music Latin Entertainment.

Univision On Demand also debuted in 2009, through distribution partners.

Marco Liceaga, SVP of Marketing and Promotions for Univision Deportes, says the network’s identity as the source for live soccer and related programming emerged quickly after its 2012 launch, and soccer soon accounted for nearly all of UDN’s programming, intentionally.

Via the “Vota Conmigo” (Vote with Me) campaign, Univision supports GOTV efforts for the midterm elections, which saw a 96% turnout increase among Hispanics from 2014.

Univision will acquire ABC’s stake in 2016.

Perenchio, who died in 2017, was an avid art collector and bequeathed his $500 million collection, including works by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet, to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Starting with its 11th season in 2018, hosted by season one winner Alejandra Espinoza, the show undergoes a format makeover and introduces a new tagline: “sin tallas, sin límites, sin excusas” (without sizes, without limits, and with no excuses).

The 2020 edition was the industry’s first live awards show during the COVID-19 pandemic, airing to a virtual audience.