Univision Acquires Spanish-Language Streaming Service VIX To Fuel PrendeTV

Univision Communications Inc. has acquired independent ad-supported Spanish-language streaming service VIX, as part of its plans to boost its own streaming service,  PrendeTV, first revealed in mid-January.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The VIX streaming platform, which targets Latin American and U.S. Hispanic audiences, comes with a VOD content library of 20,000 hours of free Spanish-language film and TV programming that will be integrated into PrendeTV, which already has 10,000 hours of content in its arsenal.

With its acquisition of Discovery Communications and Harbourvest Capital-backed VIX, Univision aims to gain immediate scale, distribution and momentum for its streaming service, scheduled to launch in the first quarter. 

At this point, Univision did not provide further details on whether the VIX brand would continue to exist within the company’s ecosystem in some shape or form or if will it be eliminated.

Today’s announcement follows the arrival of a new executive team with broad international, production and streaming business experience that includes Pierluigi Gazzolo, now Univision President and Chief Transformation Officer.

“VIX is the next key step towards Univision’s goal of building the most comprehensive ad supported streaming offering ever amassed for Latino audiences,” says Gazzolo. “VIX’s team, content library and distribution capabilities throughout the Americas immediately positions PrendeTV to lead in free, premium Spanish-language video streaming for U.S. Hispanics and gives our advertising partners a new way to reach audiences at scale through a platform specifically designed for Hispanic consumers.”

As part of the deal, VIX employees and its executive team join Univision. VIX CEO Rafael Urbina becomes Univision General Manager and EVP of AVOD Streaming.

“We built a digital streaming company with a commitment to deliver cultural relevance and best-in-class streaming capabilities to Latino audiences,” states Urbina. “Now we have the opportunity to realize that mission with the largest Spanish-language content company in the U.S., and I couldn’t be more excited about what we can achieve in concert with Univision’s scale and infrastructure.”

VIX has had its own evolution and growth. The company was founded in 1999 as Batanga Media, starting out with a portfolio of online properties and an online music service. It changed its name to VIX in 2017. VIX acquired OTT service Póngalo (formerly Latin Everywhere) in 2019. 

The company drives users to its OTT properties from its massive social media footprint, which includes 100 million Facebook followers, and according to the company, generates over 1.4 billion views every month. VIX has developed key partnerships with Roku, Google
GOOG
, Apple
AAPL
, and Amazon
AMZN
. The company has offices in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Mexico, and Brazil.

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