• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 7, 2009

Univision, one of the largest Spanish-language broadcasters in the United States, is upping its investment in original content with the launch of a new production company, Univision Studios, based in Miami. The new Univision Studios content will augment the roughly 4,000 hours of original programming already produced by Univision, giving it a crucial leg up in its competition with American Spanish-language rivals like Telemundo and Azteca America.

The new production company -- headed by Luis Fernandez, previously the president of CRTVE, Spain's biggest broadcasting company, and the producer of several hit Spanish-language movies through Promofilm -- will produce original telenovelas (Spanish-language soap operas) as well as reality shows, dramas, and entertainment specials, among other types of programming. The content will be distributed via Univision and its sister channels, TeleFutura and Galavision, as well as online at Univision's Web site and to mobile devices through Univision Movil.

Original content is one of the key areas of differentiation for Spanish-language broadcasters in the United States: creating original content signals the independence of U.S. broadcasters from Spanish-language TV in other countries, and allows them to cater to the specific cultural and economic situation of Hispanic immigrants living in the U.S.

By the same token, the success of original Spanish-language content in the U.S. has led to reverse migration over the last couple of years, with Mexican TV networks picking up some U.S. programming: in 2008, Televisa struck a deal with Telemundo for U.S.-produced Spanish-language programming, and TV Azteca picked up the Spanish-language version of "Desperate Housewives" from Univision.