Univision-Starcom Ink Early Upfront Deal, Shift Media Dollars

Univision says it has made the largest single-agency upfront deal ever with Starcom USA and its multicultural media agency Tapestry.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Univision says the deal will be the first to use a "video neutral approach," which considers all media platforms for the big Spanish-language network, two broadcast networks, three rated cable channels, local TV and radio stations, and Univision’s online, mobile and social video destinations.

The companies said this was a groundbreaking partnership and included "a shift of some traditionally 'general market' English-language media investments to Univision." It did not reveal specifics.

"The main dialogue of the past few weeks in the industry has centered around the need to break down the walls between traditional TV and digital video -- which is absolutely critical, and a key element to this deal,” says Mike Rosen, president of activation at Starcom USA, in a release. 

He added: “However, we know there are more, equally important walls that need to be torn down, including the ones between multicultural and general market, as well as ones between national and local."

Univision says the Spanish-language TV market continues to grow, with some of that rise coming at the expense of the English-language networks. It regularly outranks one or more of top four networks -- NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox -- on nearly every single night among adults 18-34. Univision says that during the first quarter of this year, it drew a larger audience than NBC on four of every five nights in the key adult 18-34 demographic and on more than half of nights among adults 18-49. 

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