Chespirito will beat the Power Rangers.

Bill Gates is a pretty smart guy. He’s the co-founder of Microsoft, the richest man on the planet. So, if he thinks that putting up as much as $14 billion to buy the Spanish-language television network Univision is a worthwhile investment, it must mean something.

It does: Bill Gates understands Spanish. Don’t get me wrong, he may not speak Spanish, but he knows what it means – at least what it means in the United States, in media, and in keeping up with the fastest growing market in the country.
Gates owns a small chunk of Televisa – about 6.35 million shares, worth just a few dollars under $511 million. And, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he already owns a $2.9 million sliver of Univision stock.
But the fact that he’s willing to join in on a takeover of Univision means even more. Of course, Gates isn’t the first to see its potential. Viacom, headed by another pretty savvy media czar, Sumner Redstone, made a play for Univision (rumored at $7 billion) back in 2002 and got turned down.

This time, Univision reportedly has set a June 8 deadline for bids. And, while the suggestion that it wants nothing less than $12 billion has some squawking, that may not be unreasonable.

Back when NBC bought Univision’s rival Telemundo for $2.7 billion in 2001, that seemed like a lot for a network running a distant second in the ratings race. At the time, Univision boasted about 80 percent of the Hispanic viewers tuning in primetime, and Wall Street valued the network at about $6.4 billion, including debt.

Well, back then, Hispanic buying power stood at about $500 billion. Today we’re closing in on double that. Hispanics, and our buying power, has surpassed every other minority group. And, while Univison’s share of the ratings have dipped to about 71 percent, we’ve added some 6 million pairs of eyeballs to the market. Despite its overall decline in share, Univision’s viewership has grown 67 percent in the last decade.

Most importantly, Spanish remains the lingua franca of U.S. Hispanics, no matter where they were born. While ratings for the English-language networks continue to erode, Spanish-language networks are gaining viewers.
That’s something Televisa’s chief, Emilio Azcárraga Jean, understands. He’s another pretty smart guy, heading – and growing – a company that already produces more top-rated Spanish-language programming than anyone else in the world. It fits his grand plan, to build a Spanish-language media empire extending across the North American continent, including broadcast, Internet, publishing and live events.

He and Bill Gates both know the importance of Univision, and Spanish. And they’re not alone. While advertisers were rethinking their spending on English-language networks at the recent upfront marketplace in New York, the Spanish-language nets expect a double digit percent increase in sales.

These are but a few of the reasons that as the June 8th deadline approaches, I would dare say that Mr Saban who brought us the Power Rangers will be defeated at the hands of Televisa and the wit of Chespirito.

By: Jose Cancela…Principal Hispanic USA Inc
jo**@*********sa.net

Hispanic USA Inc is a Full Service Hispanic Market Consulting Firm