Spanish-Language Television

How Spanish-language television networks continue to thrive in a rapidly changing media landscape.

The US television industry has suffered blow after blow amid media convergence and the rise of streaming. Those legacy broadcasters that survive are much diminished and highly dependent on live programming—the last redoubt of old media. There is an exception, though: Spanish-language television is thriving.

Spanish-Language Television surveys the Latinx media landscape to better appreciate why Univision and Telemundo have flourished while others faltered. Manuel G. Avilés-Santiago and Jillian M. Báez show that the major Spanish-language networks are unusually flexible and open to innovation in hopes of reaching new demographics. Univision and Telemundo were early to streaming. To appeal to “billennial” audiences—bilingual millennials—who threatened to stray from TV, they rebuilt the telenovela, which now features social commentary, diverse characters, and genre crossovers. Today’s reality programs defy old norms of linguistic correctness, and the airwaves are becoming less hospitable to racism and sexism, resulting in rising ratings and ad revenues. The first book-length treatment of reception patterns in Latinx TV, Spanish-Language Television deepens our understanding of new media in a moment of transformation and possibility.

Manuel G. Avilés-Santiago is a professor of Communication and Culture at Arizona State University. He also serves as the vice dean at the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. He is the author of Puerto Rican Soldiers and Second-Class Citizenship: Representations in Media.

Jillian M. Báez is an associate professor in the Africana, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studies Department at Hunter College, City University of New York. She is also on the doctoral faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of In Search of Belonging: Latinas, Media, and Citizenship.