YouTube’s Hispanic audience has grown 80% this past year and the company has taken notice: on Monday, the influential social media site announced a deal to make programming from Univision’s networks available on YouTube:
YouTube described the deal, the latest in a series of agreements with owners of professionally-produced programming, as one of its most comprehensive agreements for TV content. The agreement is nonexclusive and includes short clips as well as full-length TV shows from Univision’s three networks, Univision, TeleFutura and Galavision.
YouTube has previously reached agreements with companies like CNN, TNT, ABC, and Warner Music Group; this recent deal appears part of a trend by YouTube to make professional programming available through its site.
The noteworthy aspect of this transaction is that Univision plans to offer full-length shows on YouTube, something which major American networks generally shy away from on YouTube; they tend to offer such content on Hulu.com or on their own network sites.
It will be interesting to see whether this portends a shift in television interaction with social media, or whether it’s a one-off transaction.
