TeleFutura Hits A High Mark.

Univision Communications Inc. announced that TeleFutura delivered its highest-ever primetime, daytime and early fringe audience levels among Adults 18-49. Since TeleFutura’s launch on January 14th, the Univision Networks’ (Univision and TeleFutura) combined Adult 18-49 primetime audience grew 25% and the combined Networks’ Household audience grew 28% compared to last year.

Since TeleFutura’s launch, viewing to Spanish-language television has grown at the expense of English-language television as a direct result of TeleFutura’s counter-programming strategy. Shares of Hispanic Household primetime viewing since January 14th to Univision and Telemundo have remained unchanged at 32 and 9, respectively, while TeleFutura has brought in an additional 3 share points and English-language television has declined by 4 share points in the same period.

This week, with the introduction of Televisa programming, the most successful Spanish-language programming among all U.S. Hispanics (Spanish-dominant and bilingual/English dominant), and new blockbuster Spanish-language and Hollywood movie titles during the popular “Cine de las Estrellas” movie block on TeleFutura, Univision and TeleFutura combined grew 5 share points to an 81 Spanish-language Network primetime share among Adults 18-49 compared to Telemundo’s 19 share. For the same period last year, Univision alone had a 76 Spanish-language Network share compared to Telemundo’s 24 share.

“We’re thrilled with the ratings we have achieved on TeleFutura at such an early stage in the Network’s development as well as with the fact that Univision’s audience has continued to grow,” said Ray Rodriguez, President and Chief Operating Officer, Univision Networks. “Since TeleFutura’s launch, we have already achieved our primary goal of consistently attracting new viewers to Spanish-language television and have even beaten the competition head-to-head in various time periods. With the most popular sporting event in the world – FIFA World Cup – coming in June and as we further refine our schedule to counter program traditional Spanish-language lineups while expanding our distribution nationwide, we expect our audience levels to continue to rise steadily.”

After only nine weeks on the air, TeleFutura is attracting more than half of Telemundo’s primetime Adult 18-49 audience levels in the corresponding period and even beats Telemundo head-to-head in various time periods, making Univision and TeleFutura the number one and number two Spanish-language Networks in these time periods. For example:

* Since March 18th, TeleFutura’s new programming block (7-10 am) beat Telemundo’s morning program “de Mananita” among Adults 18-49.

* Last week, TeleFutura delivered more Adults 18-34 than Telemundo from 7-8pm on 6 out of 7 nights.

* This past Sunday, TeleFutura’s “Cine de Las Estrellas” beat Telemundo’s entire primetime block among Adults 18-34, Women 18-34 and Men 18-34.

Locally, TeleFutura stations have had the same ratings success as at the Network level, achieving record high primetime Household ratings in the key cities of Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Chicago last week. Since its debut, primetime movie ratings have increased 37% in Los Angeles, 17% in New York, 19% in Miami and 23% in Chicago.