Media

Americans are now spending almost as much on smartphone and tablet entertainment as at the box office.

There were a lot of fits and starts, and mistakes were made in every era, leaving me to wonder, will the players leveraging YouTube learn from the mistakes of yesteryear to deliver value and reach an audience that has been traditionally nearly impossible to market to directly?

Univision Communications Inc. (UCI) announced the appointment of Chiqui Cartagena to the position of vice president in the Political and Advocacy Group, effective immediately.

Radio Caracol 1260 AM in Miami announced the addition of Juan Fina as General Sales Manager of the station.

Telemundo Phoenix announced today that Andrew Deschapelles has been named Vice President of Sales, effective immediately.

Univision Networks announces the world premiere of Televisa production “Que te Perdone Dios”, an epic story about secrets and sins. The primetime novela will air first in the United States starting on January 19, 2015.

FOXLife announced the premiere of ‘Heston: Supercomidas,’ an original television series starring world renewed chef Heston Blumenthal.

Arrepentidos returns with seven new original episodes premiering on Nat Geo Mundo on Sunday, January 18 at 10PM ET/PT.

In a new survey conducted in September 2014, the Pew Research Center finds that Facebook remains by far the most popular social media site. While its growth has slowed, the level of user engagement with the platform has increased. Other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn saw significant increases over the past year in the proportion of online adults who now use their sites.

The number of mobile phone users in Latin America is growing at an increasingly slower pace. eMarketer estimates the number of individuals of any age who owned at least one mobile phone and used it at least once per month inched up a mere 4.2% in 2014 to reach 395.5 million. Roughly one-third of those users lived in Brazil, with an additional 78.2 million in Mexico. Colombia (31.7 million) came in third, ahead of Argentina’s 30.0 million users during the same period.

Desktops’ smaller-screen counterparts—laptops—saw a tiny decline in usage, as did smartphones, somewhat surprising considering their ever-growing relevance in consumers’ day-to-day lives. However, the reason for this may be due to increased usage of another touchscreen device: tablets.

Telemundo 60 San Antonio announced that Arlena Amaro has been named co-anchor for Noticias 60 Telemundo weekdays at 4:30 PM, 5 PM and 10 PM.

The NFL Network announced it has hired Steven Graciano as VP of marketing.

Consumers are dancing to the beat of Pandora. In an RBC Capital Markets study conducted in November 2014, 51% of US internet users reported listening to music via Pandora—nearly double those who did so in December 2013. This put the music streaming platform in the top spot as it surpassed more traditional FM/AM radio as well as CDs.

If social media is the new water cooler, U.S. viewers certainly had their share of “let’s discuss” moments in 2014. From someone kind of getting devoured by an anaconda to the U.S. Men’s World Cup soccer squad trying to make a go of it to, well, zombies, there’s no shortage of Twitter activity during programs—and even in the days after.

Gabriel Coronel, Kimberly Dos Ramos, Sissi Fleitas, Judith Grace, Fabián Ríos, Don Pedro Rivera, Maripily Rivera, Henry Santos, Fernando Vargas and Gabriela Vergara are ready to kick-off the new season of the culinary competition, “Top Chef Estrellas,” this Sunday, January 11th at 9pm/8c on Telemundo.

Adding to ESPN Deportes’ 11th anniversary celebration today, the network announces the addition of Hugo Sanchez to its lineup of distinguished on-air talent. Sánchez joins ESPN Deportes to serve as an analyst for Futbol Picante and other platforms, starting January 15.

In today’s world, social media usage appears to run rampant at times. Aside from just keeping in touch with friends and family, social media has a plethora of other uses; but while more Americans are seeing benefits from their social media usage, they are also encountering some negative experiences.

Leading into its exclusive Spanish-language telecast of Super Bowl XLIX when it rebrands to become NBC UNIVERSO on Feb. 1, NBCUniversal’s Hispanic cable network mun2 will air in Spanish this Saturday’s Divisional Playoff matchup between AFC powerhouses the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots.

Young adult (YA) fiction adaptations—movies based on young adult fiction titles—are a growing slice of the box office pie, increasing 6% between 2013 and 2014. One might assume that teens are driving this trend, considering that the characters in these books are around their age. But in reality, young adults are heading to theaters less frequently than they were five years ago, and fans of the YA movie genre span many age groups.