• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 3, 2014

Univision Communications and Penske’s Variety Media are expanding their content partnership with the creation of a new Spanish-language entertainment news brand, “Variety Latino – Powered by Univision.” The new brand, anchored by the VarietyLatino.com Web site, will have additional distribution across Univision's various digital channels, television networks and local stations.

Univision and Variety are hiring a dedicated team of reporters for Spanish-language entertainment news. Not coincidentally, the new Variety Latino platform is scheduled to launch Feb. 27, in time for the 2014 Oscars, and the partners plan to offer comprehensive coverage of the event in Spanish.

Michelle Sobrino, publisher of Variety, stated: “[A]s the first Hispanic publisher of Variety, I am gratified to be part of an organization that continues to break ground in its coverage of the industry.”

Variety and Univision are already collaborating on a new short-form entertainment video feature for Univision’s “Primer Impacto” (First Impact) called “Variety en Primer Impacto." The 2.5-minute segment, which rounds up Hollywood entertainment news with a focus on Hispanic stars and media personalities, is available on all Univision platforms, including broadcast, online and mobile channels.

The feature is being produced in Los Angeles by Penske Media, with Michael Davis of Penske and Pilar Campos of Primer Impacto serving as executive producers.

Univision is expanding its content and distribution at a steady clip. Last week, the broadcaster launched a new Spanish-language cable network targeting Hispanics in Canada, through a licensing agreement that rebrands Corus Entertainment’s Telelatino Network en Español as Univision Canada.

In October, Univision teamed with ABC to launch a new cable and satellite TV network -- Fusion -- targeting millennial Hispanics with English-language content. Univision also invested in El Rey, a new English-language cable TV network created by Comcast and director Robert Rodriguez.

And in November, Univision joined forces with HSN to launch “Boutique Univision, una tienda de HSN” (Boutique Univision, an HSN store), a home-shopping platform targeting Hispanic consumers with curated collections of products, including beauty, home, fashion, culinary, electronics and holiday. And in December, it struck a deal with MiTú to create short-form Spanish-language content for syndication on Univision’s digital platforms.