• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, March 15, 2011

Univision and Telemundo have been preaching it. Now the challenge is to profit from it.

The two networks -- and other Spanish-language media -- have said results from the 2010 Census will validate a surge in the Hispanic population and bring more ad dollars their way. And in some cases, Census results are even outpacing estimates.

The Census Bureau has publicized Hispanic results from 33 states and in 23, the Hispanic population has exceeded Bureau estimates by at least 2%, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Pew did say that the gap has been greater in states with smaller Hispanic populations, suggesting Hispanic populations may be larger in some unexpected areas.

Across the 33 states, Hispanics accounted for 58% of the total population growth over the last decade. For the full 33, the combined 38.7 million Hispanics exceeded Bureau estimates by 1.5%. Counts for all 50 states will be out by the end of the month.

Media buyers, however, have been aware of the large Hispanic population and likely factored that into their approaches, so Census counts alone may not inspire them to spend more in Hispanic-targeted media. Nonetheless, networks have some grist for PowerPoint sales presentations thanks to the Census, for sure.

In 3 states, Pew said the Hispanic counts were lower than estimates. In a recent investor call, Univision said it is beefing up its sales and research operations to take advantage of Census results. Univision, where CEO Joe Uva is leaving, saw TV net revenue up 16.7% to more than $1.8 billion in 2010. As a small part of NBCUniversal, Telemundo results have generally not been made public.