ANALYSIS | STREAMING & TV
70 million Hispanic viewers take 19.1% of U.S. streaming time but keep 42% of linear viewing in Spanish / 45% of Hispanic FAST users dropped a paid service; 30.1% of 'KPop Demon Hunters' viewers were Hispanic / Korea's opening: Spanish-first channels and ad sales
Hispanic viewers accounted for 19.1% of all U.S. streaming time in the first half of 2026, or nearly one in every five streamed minutes, according to Nielsen's 2026 Diverse Intelligence Series, released in September for Hispanic Heritage Month. Hispanic audiences watched more than 2 trillion minutes of TV over the six months: 1.2 trillion minutes streamed and 839 billion on linear TV, TVNewsCheck reported. The U.S. Census Bureau puts the Hispanic population at 70.1 million as of July 2025, about 21% of the country. That is more people than live in South Korea, tied together inside the United States by a single language.
A Digiday analysis of Nielsen data breaks Hispanic TV time from January to June into 59% streaming, 24% English-language linear TV and 17% Spanish-language linear TV. Three-fifths of viewing has moved to streaming. But look only at linear TV, and 42% of it goes to Spanish-language channels, even though English programming hours outnumber Spanish nine to one. Spanish channels supply about a tenth of the programming and capture more than four-tenths of the viewing. The language holds across generations: 77% of Hispanic Gen Z viewers speak at least some Spanish at home, according to the Nielsen report as cited by El Mundo.
The shift from paid subscriptions to free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) is showing up in survey data as well. FAST services offer scheduled, channel-style streams that viewers watch free in exchange for ads. In Horowitz Research's 2026 State of Viewing Behaviors FOCUS Latinx study, released Sept. 28, 45% of Latinx FAST users said the growing availability of free services had led them to cancel at least one paid streaming subscription. Fifty-nine percent watch Spanish-language or Hispanic-themed programming on FAST every week, NewscastStudio reported.
The money is moving too. U.S. advertising revenue at TelevisaUnivision fell 29% year over year in the second quarter to $323.3 million, while U.S. subscription and licensing revenue rose 8% to $376.9 million, The Desk reported July 24. On Oct. 11, Univision brings back Don Francisco, longtime host of the 53-year variety institution 'Sábado Gigante,' in a new special series that will air the same day on the Univision network and the company's ViX streaming service.
In his Oct. 7 Future of TV Briefing, Digiday's Tim Peterson paired the Nielsen and Horowitz findings in four charts, noting that Hispanic audiences' share of streaming roughly tracks their share of the population. His grandparents, he wrote, would have watched traditional TV alongside streaming and would not have missed Don Francisco's return this weekend. The Hispanic market is one where streaming and linear, Spanish and English, coexist under the same roof.
Streaming at 19.1%: A Market Running 10 Points Ahead
Hispanic viewers' move to streaming was visible a year earlier. In Nielsen's Curating The Narrative report, released Sept. 9, 2025, streaming accounted for 55.8% of Hispanic TV time, versus 46% for the total U.S. audience. Even Spanish-dominant Hispanic viewers spent 52.8% of their TV time streaming, PPC Land reported. Digiday's first-half 2026 figure of 59% is 3.2 percentage points higher than the 2025 report, though the two cover different periods, so the gain is indicative rather than exact.
The broader U.S. audience has since followed. In Nielsen's June 2026 edition of The Gauge, its monthly share-of-viewing report, streaming took 48.5% of TV time, broadcast 19.8% and cable 19.5%, MediaPost reported Aug. 18. YouTube held 13.5% and Netflix 7.9%. The Hispanic first-half streaming share of 59% sits 10.5 points above the overall June figure. Hispanic audiences are previewing where the U.S. market is heading, roughly a year or two early.
Movies stand out. Feature films accounted for 33.6% of Hispanic streaming time, compared with 26.9% for total audiences (TVNewsCheck). Netflix's animated 'KPop Demon Hunters' drew a 30.1% Hispanic audience share, more than nine points above the community's share of the population. Nielsen's Asian American audiences report also found the film was the most-streamed original movie of 2025, at 20.5 billion minutes, and the No. 1 movie among Hispanic viewers. It is a U.S. production from Sony Pictures Animation, co-directed by a Korean Canadian filmmaker and built around K-pop, not a Korean export. Still, it is a clear signal that Hispanic family audiences respond early to Korea-themed content.
The generational gap is wide. Connected devices, such as smart TVs and streaming players, account for 88% of TV time among Hispanic children ages 2 to 11. Hispanic adults 65 and older average nearly 45 hours of TV a week, mostly on linear channels (El Mundo). Among Hispanic adults ages 18 to 34, 61% pay for ad-free streaming (Media Play News). In other words, one group is moving to free services while another pays to avoid ads. “Hispanic viewers are a growth engine for the media industry, across every platform, language, and generation,” Stacie deArmas, Nielsen's head of cultural content and insights, said in the release reported by TVNewsCheck.
The Hispanic share of the U.S. population (21%) and of first-half streaming time (19.1%) are nearly level. The Hispanic share of the Super Bowl audience rose from 14.4% to 16.4% in a year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Nielsen
Streaming share of TV time. Hispanic viewers reached 55.8% in the 2025 report and 59% in the first half of 2026, more than 10 points above the total U.S. audience (48.5% in June). Source: Nielsen (1H 2026 figure from Digiday analysis)
42% of Linear Viewing in Spanish, and 97 of the Top 100 Telecasts Were Sports
Spanish-language programming took 42% of Hispanic viewers' linear TV time, according to Nielsen. The figure applies to linear TV only, not to total viewing. Even with roughly nine times more English programming on the schedule, Hispanic viewing concentrates on Spanish channels. Top Spanish-language telenovelas, the Latin American serialized dramas that air daily, averaged more than 1 million Hispanic viewers per episode five nights a week, with peak telecasts reaching 1.5 million (TVNewsCheck). That habit of following one story night after night resembles the long-running daily and weekend dramas of Korean broadcast TV.
What remains on linear TV is largely live sports. Hispanic viewers watched 149 billion minutes of sports across linear TV and live streaming in the first half. Of the top 100 broadcasts among Hispanic viewers, 97 were sports, led by soccer at about 50 billion minutes, Advanced Television reported Sept. 14. The Hispanic share of the Super Bowl audience rose from 14.4% in 2025 to 16.4% in 2026. For the World Baseball Classic final on Fox and Fox Deportes, Hispanic viewers numbered 2.1 million, or 20.6% of the audience.
Shared viewing also keeps linear TV relevant. Nielsen counted 1.9 viewers per set during World Cup telecasts in both Hispanic and total households. DeArmas told Advanced Television that Hispanic audiences showed up first for nearly every major event of 2026, with the rest of the country following. A year earlier, Nielsen found that entertainment and talk programming made up nearly 20% of Hispanic viewing (Portada, Sept. 12, 2025).
Don Francisco Returns Oct. 11, on Linear and Streaming at Once
TelevisaUnivision first announced Don Francisco's return at its May 12 upfront in New York, the annual event where networks preview the coming season for advertisers and pre-sell ad inventory. It also unveiled 10 new telenovelas there, TodoTVNews reported. In a Sept. 3 press release, the company named the show 'GIGANTES con Don Francisco' and said it would premiere in October on Univision and ViX at the same time. It is a special series built on interviews, reunions and nostalgia, not a weekly regular program.
The premiere is set for Sunday, Oct. 11. It is taped in the studio that once housed 'Sábado Gigante,' with singers Lucero and Luis Fonsi and soccer goalkeeper Memo Ochoa confirmed as the first guests, elsalvador.com reported Sept. 18. Don Francisco is 85. 'Sábado Gigante' ended in 2015 after 53 years, and his follow-up on Telemundo, 'Don Francisco Te Invita,' wrapped in 2018 after 100 episodes (mitú).
Univision is placing a host who has been off a regular show for nearly eight years on its linear network and its own streaming service on the same day. Nielsen's data shows most viewing by Hispanics 65 and older is on linear TV, while 88% of children's viewing is on connected devices. Releasing one show on both windows at once can bring grandparents and grandchildren to the same evening. It is a scheduling move that ties a linear network losing ad revenue to a streaming service gaining subscribers under one brand.
45% of FAST Users Dropped a Paid Service, 65% Tired of Repeat Ads
Horowitz's 2026 study surveyed 623 Latinx TV content viewers ages 18 and older. Among FAST users, 45% had canceled at least one paid subscription because of free services, and 65% said they were annoyed when the same ad ran multiple times during a single program. Use of Hispanic-specific FAST services was comparatively low, which Horowitz attributed to programming that is hard to see and hard to find. “FAST has clearly established its value for Latinx viewers, but free access alone will not guarantee long-term engagement,” Adriana Waterston, executive vice president and insights and strategy lead at Horowitz Research, said in the press release. “The next stage of growth will depend on delivering an advertising experience that respects the viewer while providing a consistent pipeline of culturally relevant programming that reflects the diversity of today's Latinx audience.”
Free streaming use has climbed quickly. In Horowitz's 2024 study, 80% of Hispanic content viewers used free streaming services, versus 67% of all viewers, up from 14% in 2019. The most-used FAST services in Hispanic households at the time were Tubi, Pluto TV, YouTube, Freevee and Roku (NewscastStudio, May 10, 2024). Federico Garza, senior vice president of research at Telemundo Enterprises, cited Horowitz data in a PRODU column showing that 47% of Hispanic TV viewers watch live content on FAST, compared with 40% of the total market.
Peterson wrote that his thrifty grandparents would have used FAST, and that if his grandmother had known 'I Love Lucy' and 'Bonanza' were there, she would have tried to cancel his grandfather's ViX subscription first. As classic libraries move to free channels, paid subscriptions must lean on what cannot be replaced for free, such as sports and exclusive new releases. For Korean content owners, that opens room to put back catalogs to work on FAST.
Univision's U.S. Ad Revenue Fell 29% in Q2 as Subscription Growth Slowed
TelevisaUnivision's U.S. revenue lines moved in opposite directions. First-quarter U.S. advertising revenue fell 12% to $310 million, while U.S. subscription revenue rose 12% to $385 million. Radio Ink reported April 28 that ViX's premium tier drove the subscription gain and that weakness in linear TV outweighed growth in direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming, meaning services sold straight to viewers through the company's own app.
The ad decline deepened to 29% in the second quarter. The company called it a cyclical dip because rival Telemundo carried the World Cup in the U.S. Its Mexico business, which held World Cup rights there, grew advertising 23% and subscription and licensing 157%. Total company revenue rose 10% to $1.3 billion. CEO Daniel Alegre said the World Cup reaffirmed why soccer is central to the company's strategy and said the U.S. election cycle should help profitability (The Desk).
ViX's U.S. subscription revenue competes for the same hours Hispanic viewers are shifting to free services. As one in two FAST users reported canceling a paid service, Univision's U.S. subscription growth slowed from 12% in the first quarter to 8% in the second. Even the leading Spanish-language company faces a double squeeze: falling advertising and slowing subscriptions. For platforms looking for Spanish-language programming, that widens the door for outside suppliers.
TelevisaUnivision U.S. revenue growth. Advertising declined for two straight quarters, and subscription and licensing growth slowed. Source: TelevisaUnivision earnings (via Radio Ink and The Desk)
Korea's AI-Dubbed FAST Channels Hit 100 Million Views; a Spanish K-Dance Channel Is Next
Korea's push into Spanish-language FAST has been accelerated by a government program. On July 9, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Association for ICT Promotion (KAIT) released results from their AI-dubbing K-FAST support program. In 2025, participating companies localized about 1,200 Korean titles, more than 1,400 hours, into English, Spanish and Portuguese and built 20 AI-dubbed K-FAST channels. The channels launched in December 2025 on Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels in 22 countries, including the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and logged about 100 million cumulative views through the end of April 2026, Newsis reported.
This year, three consortia led by Hudson AI, ESTsoft and UN AI were selected. They will build four new flagship AI-dubbed channels at 230 million won (about $169,000) each. Among them, a K-dance channel combining variety elements and local collaborations will target Spanish-speaking viewers in Mexico and Hispanic audiences in the U.S. A vertical drama channel will use a 'dual view' format that places 9:16 vertical video on a TV screen. Membership in the Global K-FAST Alliance has grown from 22 companies at its April 2025 launch to 82. The ministry projects the global FAST market will grow from about 16 trillion won ($11.8 billion) in 2025 to about 23 trillion won ($16.9 billion) in 2030.
There is also a private-sector precedent for Spanish dubbing. In August 2022, CJ ENM partnered with TelevisaUnivision to bring dramas including 'Hotel Del Luna,' 'Another Miss Oh' and 'Because This Is My First Life,' fully dubbed in Spanish, to ViX (World Screen). On Sept. 4 this year, CJ ENM launched two 24-hour FAST channels, 'CJ ENM K-Stories' and 'CJ ENM K-Pop,' on Amazon Prime Video for U.S. viewers, programming the first month with dramas such as 'The K2' and 'Her Private Life' and the film 'Veteran,' The Financial News reported. Two routes are open at once: licensing titles to the leading Spanish-language platform, and running branded channels on general-market platforms.
Korean TV Ad Spending Drops Below $2.1 Billion; Overseas FAST Sells by Language Channel
Korean broadcasters' advertising base keeps shrinking. In the 2025 broadcasting and communications advertising survey by the Korea Media and Communications Commission and the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation (KOBACO), broadcast ad spending fell 5% in 2024 to 3.22 trillion won (about $2.37 billion) and was projected to drop 13.8% in 2025 to 2.77 trillion won (about $2.04 billion), below 3 trillion won for the first time.
Terrestrial broadcast ad spending (TV, radio and DMB combined) was forecast to fall from 1.23 trillion won in 2024 to 1.05 trillion won (about $772 million) in 2025. Online advertising reached 10.1 trillion won, about 59% of the 17.13 trillion won total (Journalists Association of Korea, Jan. 8). Replacing shrinking domestic ad revenue with overseas FAST revenue is no longer optional for Korean broadcasters. It is a matter of survival.
Digiday's time breakdown narrows where Korean broadcasters can compete. The 17% of Hispanic TV time spent on Spanish-language linear TV belongs to networks like Univision and Telemundo, which defend it with broadcast stations and soccer rights. Korean channels can reach the 59% that is streamed. Within that space, 59% of Hispanic FAST users seek out Spanish-language or Hispanic programming weekly, and 45% have dropped a paid subscription for free services. For newcomers, free ad-supported channels are a lower barrier to entry than paid subscriptions.
The Hispanic data also answers how Korean broadcasters should package channels abroad. Even with nine times more English programming available, Hispanic viewers spent 42% of their linear time on Spanish channels. That habit favors dedicated Spanish-dubbed channels over English channels with Spanish subtitles. The government's K-dance channel will be the first test. Three genre lanes stand out: films, which take a third of Hispanic streaming time; entertainment and talk, at nearly 20% of viewing; and long-form dramas that share the structure of telenovelas. The archives of Korea's three terrestrial networks and its general-programming cable channels cover all three.
Once a channel launches, revenue depends on placement and ad quality. Horowitz found that Hispanic-specific FAST services saw low usage because programming was hard to find. Where a channel sits within the Spanish-language categories of Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels or Tubi becomes a key term in carriage negotiations. With 65% of FAST users annoyed by repeat ads, leaving ad sales entirely to the platform means Spanish channels, with fewer advertisers, are likely to run the same spots over and over. At home, terrestrial networks sell ads through KOBACO and general-programming channels through media reps, or ad sales agencies. Overseas FAST, by contrast, runs on revenue-sharing deals with platforms. Setting the mix of direct-sold and platform-sold ads for each language channel is where an overseas FAST revenue model starts.
That 97 of the top 100 Hispanic telecasts were sports also means Korean broadcasters, which lack live U.S. sports rights, will compete outside sports, in film, entertainment, music and drama. And with 61% of 18- to 34-year-olds paying for ad-free streaming, a two-track approach is worth weighing: build awareness on free FAST channels, then sell new releases to paid platforms.
The Message for Korean Broadcasters: KBS and MBC in the Red, SBS Sitting on 22 Spanish-Dubbed Dramas
The domestic ad base of Korea's three terrestrial networks shrank again last year. According to regulatory filings compiled by the Journalists Association of Korea on April 15, KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) posted a 2025 operating loss of 99.6 billion won (about $73.3 million) as advertising revenue fell 30.2 billion won (about $22.2 million). MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation) saw ad revenue drop 21.5 billion won (about $15.8 million) and recorded an operating loss of 27.6 billion won (about $20.3 million). SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) returned to an operating profit by cutting operating expenses 130.8 billion won (about $96.3 million), but its ad revenue fell 43.5 billion won (about $32 million).
On June 4, the Korea Media and Communications Commission held a K-FAST meeting at the Samsung Innovation Museum in Suwon, gathering KBS, MBC and SBS with Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, CJ ENM, Hudson AI and others. Chairman Kim Jong-cheol said the industry needs “a strategy that actively uses global distribution platforms like FAST to overcome the crisis facing Korean broadcasting and media” (Edaily). Participants also noted that FAST viewership of Korean content has fallen short of the overseas interest in it, and that simply rerunning old programs has its limits, News Tomato reported. The commission's forecast for the global FAST market, 18 trillion won (about $13.3 billion) in 2025 rising to 47 trillion won (about $34.6 billion) in 2030, uses a different basis from the science ministry's estimate (16 trillion to 23 trillion won).
SBS International said at the L.A. Screenings in May that it holds 22 Spanish-dubbed dramas totaling more than 600 hours. Its main customers are Latin American buyers looking for finished programming for free-to-air TV. The company ended its relationship with distributor MGE in favor of direct distribution, and its latest dub is 'Cheer Up,' PRODU reported May 29. The SBS drama 'Stairway to Heaven' was a hit across Latin America, including Peru, Chile and Venezuela, and both its first and second runs in Ecuador topped a 40% share. In February 2011, Telemundo Internacional renewed its deal with SBS International to distribute the series and other titles in the region (World Screen).
Until now, these dubbed assets have been used for country-by-country rights sales. With 59% of Hispanic TV time now streamed, the same dubs can also fill Spanish-language FAST channels for U.S. Hispanic viewers. Running both sales and channels requires carving out territories at the contract stage so that rights sold to Latin American buyers do not overlap with U.S. FAST distribution by region or window. Under the government K-FAST program, which funds 230 million won per channel, a consortium model, in which a terrestrial network contributes its dubbed library and an AI dubbing company adds new volume, would ease the investment burden for loss-making broadcasters better than running a channel alone.
The 17% of Hispanic TV time spent on Spanish-language linear TV belongs to Univision and Telemundo. Korean networks have no channel to compete there, but they already supply both networks with finished shows and formats. SBS said in May 2022 that it had signed a deal with Telemundo for a Spanish-language remake of 'Stairway to Heaven' (Yonhap), and in January 2025, SBS International told PRODU it was working on a Hispanic version with Telemundo Studios. For TelevisaUnivision, which has slated 10 new telenovelas, and for Spanish-language networks facing tighter production budgets as U.S. ad revenue falls, proven Korean dramas are strong remake candidates. For Korean broadcasters, such deals pay less per title than rights sales but widen the audience base through local production.
At home, KBS and SBS launched the 24-hour news channels 'KBS News 24' and 'SBS No.1 News Live' on Samsung TV Plus in January (Digital Daily, Jan. 29). Samsung TV Plus operates in 30 countries with more than 100 million monthly users and about 4,300 channels (Samsung Newsroom). Extending that domestic FAST experience to the platform's Spanish-language categories abroad requires a different operating unit. Domestic channels simply carry the Korean schedule, but Hispanic channels must run Spanish dubbing, programming and ad sales separately, by language. A Don Francisco-style special that brings back the original host of a long-running variety show for both domestic air and overseas FAST is possible, but older shows often have talent fees and music rights cleared only for domestic broadcast. Re-clearing those rights for overseas FAST distribution has to come first.
What to Watch: The Oct. 11 Premiere, Midterm Ad Spending and K-FAST's Spanish Channel Results
Linear and ViX ratings for the Oct. 11 premiere of 'GIGANTES con Don Francisco' will be the first evidence of whether a heritage brand can pull in two generations at once. The Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections, which Alegre cited as a profitability driver, will help determine how much of the 29% second-quarter drop in U.S. ad revenue comes back in the third quarter and beyond. Political advertising lifts U.S. broadcaster ad revenue every even-numbered year.
On the FAST side, the question is whether Hispanic users keep canceling paid services. Horowitz noted that while FAST has proven its value, repetitive ads and poor discoverability could keep users from staying. If FAST operators expand Spanish-language libraries and ad variety, subscription growth at paid services like ViX could slow further. Paid bundles of sports and exclusive new releases, on the other hand, protect the ground that free services cannot take.
For Korean companies, viewing results from the Spanish-language K-FAST channels due this year will be the first real data point. The 70.1 million Hispanic Americans form a single market inside the U.S. bound by one language, and they account for a fifth of U.S. streaming time. The 30.1% Hispanic share for 'KPop Demon Hunters' shows the demand is already there. What remains is how it is served. Whether Korean channels stay as translated versions of English feeds, or build Spanish-first programming and ad sales of their own, will decide where they stand a year from now.