LOS ANGELES – Univision, the nation's No. 1 Spanish-language broadcaster, is bringing its popular telenovelas and other prime-time TV programming to online video service Hulu.
The deal announced Wednesday gives Hulu a way to sell advertising to a growing Hispanic population and entice them to pay for subscriptions that unlock more content. Univision gets a chance to make the kind of money from reruns that English-language programs have long enjoyed.
Hulu's paying subscribers will get the majority of Univision's prime-time offerings the day after airing on regular TV. Hulu says it has more than 1 million people who pay $8 a month for Hulu Plus, which lets them watch shows on devices other than a computer and access a deeper library than the free version.
Full episodes of certain shows will also be available on the free version of Hulu a day after being broadcast on TV. Both free and paid versions of Hulu come with ads.
The multi-year agreement is the first major online deal since Univision Communications Inc. settled with Mexican producer Grupo Televisa SAB late last year for the right to show Televisa programs to U.S. audiences over the Internet.
Hulu said it will launch the service with a revamped website later this year.
Hulu is up for sale by its owners, The Walt Disney Co., News Corp., Comcast Corp. and Providence Equity Partners. The length of the deal suggests that the arrangement would continue under new owners if a sale is completed soon.
Until now, Hispanic audiences haven't had a good reason to turn to Hulu on the Web. They represent 16 percent of the U.S. population — around 50 million people — a large untapped group for Hulu and its advertisers.
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