This structural configuration is often viewed as but a marginal variation in Televisa's long-standing dominance of U.S. Spanish-language television. The majority of Univision programming is produced in Mexico, by Televisa, as it has been since the first Spanish­ language television stations were established in the United States in 1961. The network was then called SIN, the Spanish International Network. In 1986, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found SIN to be in violation of the U.S. law that prohibits foreign ownership of U.S. broadcast stations. Televisa was ordered to divest itself of its U.S. subsidiary, and SIN was sold to Hallmark Cards of Kansas City, Missouri, and renamed Univision.

     Under Hallmark ownership, about half of Univision programming was Televisa rebroadcasts (telenovelas or soap operas, sports, movies, and variety programming), and half was produced in the United States. The U.S.-produced programming, which included a telenovela, a situation comedy. and greatly expanded national U.S. news and public affairs programming, proved popular with U.S. Latino audiences. Nonetheless, between 1986 and 1992, Hallmark, which had financed its purchase of the Spanish-language network with junk bonds, was unable to recover its initial investment in Univision. In 1992 Hallmark sold the network to the Perenchino group, which prominently featured Televisa. Among the new owners' first moves was the firing of about a third of the network's Miami­ based staff. This resulted in the cancellation of most of the U.S.-produced programs, and the re-creation of a broadcast day largely composed of Televisa programs.

     Univision has been at the forefront of the creation of a national "Hispanic market." the notion that U.S. Latinos are an attractive, commercially viable market segment, and so an audience that advertisers should attempt to reach. Prior to the mid- 1980s, the Hispanic population was configured as three markets: Puerto Rican in the eastern United States, Cuban in south Florida, and Mexican in the southwest. Advertising agencies, accordingly, produced three separate Spanish-language advertising campaigns. Univision's extensive market and audience research persuaded Madison Avenue that these three audiences should be considered one national audience. This effort was given a major boost by the Hispanic Nielsen Survey, especially designed methodology for measuring U.S. Spanish-language television audiences, commissioned by Univision and Telemundo, and implemented by the A.C. Nielsen Company in the early 1990s. This new audience measurement system found a U.S. Spanish­ language television audience 30 to 40 percent larger than had previously been identified.

     Network research conducted by Univision shows that most of its audience are recent Latin American immigrants. Another group is made up of those who have lived in the United States for years, who, because of a myriad of factors, prefer to view television in the Spanish language. Most of these immigrant audience members are from Mexico, though an increasing proportion are Central American. A smaller portion of the Univision audience is more acculturated, bilingual U.S. Latinos, a generally wealthier group much sought after by network planners. Overall, Univision research shows that about 70 percent of the Univision audience is Mexican or Mexican American, IO percent each Puerto Rican and Cuban American, with the remainder from other Latin American countries.

     The most watched Univision programs are Televisa telenovelas, serialized melodramas which, in contrast to U.S. soap operas, usually end after two or three months. Also, notably present in the Univision top is the nightly U.S. national newscast, the Noticiero Uni­ vision. Apparently the Univision immigrant audience, while maintaining its links to "the old country" through the traditional telenovelas, is also seeking out knowledge  of  its adopted  U.S. home. Each  year  the U.S. Spanish-speaking audience has more television programs among which to choose. Telemundo, another U.S. Spanish-language television network founded in 1986, has grown to several hundred affiliates. Galavi­ sion and Showtime en Espanol, two premium cable channels, as well as several regional Spanish-language cable networks, including Spanish-language ESPN and MTV, are challenging Univision's previously uncontested hold on U.S. Spanish-language television.