Fusion: a new chapter in the commercial logic of Hispanic media in the US

Broadcasters ABC News, a unit of Disney, and Univision announced in February that they would be launching Fusion, an English-language network to provide factual content focusing on matters from the perspective of Hispanics, the largest ethnic minority in the United States. This association represents a major development in country's cultural industries, which over the last few decades have experienced the consolidation of a Spanish-language media market that has been undergoing a process of cultural hybridity since the 1950s. This process began with a form of media transnationalism initiated by Mexican broadcaster Televisa (Moreno, 2011); it has been followed by a stage of development of a national media market in Spanish that has been marked by two important dynamics: a) tensions over the need to serve a market of immigrant and US-born Latin American-origin audiences, and b) the reorientation of nationally-produced content as a flow of programming consumed in Latin America. In this blog I will be discussing some political, cultural and economic aspects of the first dynamic, which manifests itself directly through Fusion in ways that signal the presence of a new episode in the life of Hispanics in the US. This new episode is likely to take many forms, for instance, of deeper cultural assimilation, but also in terms of accelerating the transnational connections of US-born Latin Americans with their ancestors' countries of origin. Whilst my intention is to start thinking about these processes, in this post I would like to simply outline some initial thoughts about the significance of Fusion. The latter's importance is immediately clear in at least three interrelated dimensions: commercial, political and cultural. For this post, I will be addressing the first one.

The market logic

In straightforward terms, Fusion can be seen as widening the offer of programming for a section of the Hispanic audience that has been left unattended by the existing alternatives. In this context, there has always existed the notion that media products for people of Latin American origin has concentrated on Spanish-speaking immigrants, whilst neglecting their assimilated children, and in turn their offspring. To the present day, for example, these latter viewers have not been sufficiently attracted by Univision's programming, largely concentrated on content that is particularly attractive for "eyeballs" of Mexican-origin. Telemundo, which has tried to differentiate itself with programming that resonates better amongst Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Salvadorans, etc, has been able to better reflect on the diversity of the Hispanic population. However, its lack of appeal amongst Mexican-origin people (which forms 65% of all Hispanics) has left it trailing far behind Univision in terms of its market share and advertising revenue. After it was acquired by NBC Universal, Telemundo's knowledge of the non-immigrant Spanish-speaking population paved the way for Mun2, a US network that adopted Spanglish as a key element of its programming and production values. These characteristics were aimed at attracting young English-speaking Latinos who maintain a close cultural proximity to the Spanish-speaking world. One problem with Mun2 is that its revenue potential is limited by its young, low-income audience, which is either likely to remain as part of an unattractive market segment, or to adopt alternative choices that meet new aspirations as they become more educated and employed.

Fusion could very well be seen as Univision's forward-looking response to Mun2, although not necessarily in competitive terms. In other words, Univision is already paving the way to maintain its leadership, (or at least to remain as a highly relevant player), as a provider of information and entertainment for Latinos. Aware that the Hispanic population is undergoing an important demographic transformation that will sooner rather than later render obsolete its business model, Univision has smartly allied with ABC News, a unit of the world's largest media corporation, to enter the world's major English-language media market. It may well be true that Fusion could alienate English-speaking Latinos who do not want to be targeted on the basis of their ethnicity, but even if it were to fail in commercial terms, it would result in a highly valuable experience, giving Univision a foothold in the two most important linguistic markets in the US and worldwide. In any case, even if one looks at Fusion as a short-term initiative, it makes sound business sense, considering that Fusion is a reflection of the rising economic importance attributed to assimilated Latinos, who represent 66% of Hispanics as a whole. The latter are deemed to represent the bulk of a purchasing power estimated to grow from 1 to 1.5 trillion dollars in the period between 2010 and 2015. Subsequently, with Fusion, Univision would be positioning itself, alongside ABC News, as a producer of premium content that has the potential to reach the more educated, and high-income sectors of the Hispanic population.