YouTube partners with Univision to offer Spanish-language programs; creates citizen journalism service

The largest Hispanic media company in the United States has agreed to feature short and full-length programs on YouTube, including new and archived programs from the Univision, TeleFutura and Galavision networks, Reuters and AFP report.

The agreement is the latest in several YouTube ventures with major entertainment partners, reports the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. Revenue will come from ads featured around the programs, and Univision will receive most of it, Reuters says.

YouTube has also created a citizen journalism tool, YouTube Direct, which allows news organizations to request and rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from users. You can read about it here on the YouTube blog.

Read more on this story here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

The latest Latin American export: "Esta Sociedad"

Just not that into the CW’s remixed version of “Melrose Place”? Tired of the Upper East Siders over on “Gossip Girl”?  Well, there’s a new edgy drama in town … and it has traveled all the way from Peru.

The Latin American hit series “Esta Sociedad” ("This Society") premieres tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT on mun2, a bilingual cable network. The drama, produced by Timeline Producciones in Peru, centers around two wealthy Peruvian families living in Lima and explores a gamut of issues from teenage pregnancy and homosexuality to socio-economic divisions and racism.

The provocative one-hour series first aired in the summer of 2006 on America TV, a Peruvian channel.

The series — appearing with English subtitles for the Spanish impaired — will air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, with repeats airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

It’s not the first programming acquisition by mun2. The network’s other subtitled venture, “El Cartel,” which originally aired in Colombia, looks at the violent world of Colombia's drug lords. It premiered on mun2 this summer and airs Mondays-Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. And earlier this year, the network aired the popular Telemundo series “Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso” ("Without Breasts There is No Paradise").

Don’t have cable or, heck, even a TV? Not to worry. This is the digital age. Full episodes of “Esta Sociedad” (with English subtitles!) will stream online at holamun2.com. 

--Yvonne Villarreal

Photo: (from left) Bruno Ascenzo ("Alonso"), Gisela Ponce de Leon ("Mirkala"), Jason Day  ("Sebastian"),
Carolina Cano ("Viviana") . Credit: Timeline Producciones.