I wanted to follow my last post on U.S. Spanish language TV ratings by focusing just on telenovelas, and how their similar storylines draw similar audience flows.

This analysis is based on the same data as the previous post, a consolidation of household (HH) ratings data from archived newsletters, dating back to April 3, 2009. Ratings were not available for certain dates when the newsletter was on hiatus, most importantly between December 18th and the 28th.

The following graph charts the ratings from beginning to end for various 8 p.m and 9 p.m. telenovelas on Univision. Initial episode ratings for certain titles are not shown since they began before April. The biggest performer within this group is Mañana Es Para Siempre, who began to rise in viewership during its last 46 episodes.  Similar audience increases are also seen for Sortilegio and slightly for En Nombre del Amor. These rises demonstrate how viewers tune in more often once a telenovela becomes “caliente,” once the viewers have become engaged with its characters and the plotline begins to reach climactic points before reaching a big finish. It’s the natural cycle of telenovelas. Not all titles follow this rule however, as in the case of this group’s underperfomer, Ciudado con el Angel. This title market the lowest rating (1.5 on April 10) and also experienced a gradual ratings decline during its final episodes, an unusual reversal of the norm.

For Telemundo I also got together various titles, albeit from a broader time periods since Telemundo programs telenovelas during their entire primetime at 8, 9 and 10 p.m. The highest overall performer seems to have been Mas Sabe el Diablo, but it might be usurped by the recently started ¿Dónde ésta Elisa? which opened up at 10 p.m with a respectable audience of 826,000 viewers and a 0.7 HH rating.

¿Dónde ésta Elisa? has maintained or increased its HH rating since then, which is quite extraordinary, as audience normally decreases for a a telenovela after the premiere episode before bouncing back. This enduring viewership could be due to the title’s mystery plot, which focuses on a young girl who is kidnapped in the first episode. This effective plotline will likely be replicated in future telenovelas.

I recently read an Ad Age article regarding the popularity of Univision’s content on YouTube. It focuses on how popular certain network content is on YouTube. A major point is how Univision’s telenovelas (Latin soap operas) are the most popular fare by far.

Number of views of clips from the 10 most-pirated shows on each major network

1. Univision: 583,750,247 views
2. Fox: 289,074,325 views
3. ABC: 260,299,418 views
4. CBS: 127,334,729 views
5. NBC: 120,890,835 views

However, as one of the commentators noted, many of the Univision videos didn’t seem to come from that network since they had an embedded logo bug for El Canal de las Estrellas, Televisa-owned Channel 2 from Mexico. It is easy to confuse the two network since they broadcast many of the same telenovelas, produced in Mexico and very popular with Univision’s Hispanic audience as well as in many other foreign markets.

As I searched YouTube’s site for telenovelas I also noticed that many of these telenovela videos were hosted by a few specialty YouTube ‘channels,’ who seemed to specialize in the telenovela genre.

YouTube Channels with Telenovela content

1. Laurisgar: 1,415 videos
2. Tvnovelasmx: 1,414 videos
3. Mundomexicotv: 1,077 videos
4. Felsesnovela: 418 videos
5. rBd24RbD: 434 videos

The hosts of these channels seemed to be based in Mexico, and some of them even explained how they posted the videos ‘as soon as the programs were transmitted’ by Canal 2 in Mexico. What’s noteworthy was although these channels originate in Mexico their content seems to draw more traffic from outside that country. For example the Laurisgar channel is currently ranked as the #5 YouTube channel worlwide, but it doesn’t even place in the Mexican rankings (YouTube channel rankings after changing the ‘country of content preference’). I believe this discrepancy is due to Televisa’s new online video site, TVolucion. This site, launched in October 2008 is sort of a Mexican version of Hulu, so it’s been a major draw for Mexican telenovela watchers. Also similar to Hulu, this site cannot be utilized by outside of its home country so ‘foreign’ telenovela fans need to get their fix elsewhere, hence YouTube’s attraction.

However, as the Ad Age article also mentions, this situation will probably not last much longer. Univision doesn’t currently offer any telenovela video online since the rights have not been cleared with Televisa but talks have been ongoing for some time. Also, just last month, Univision named Kevin Conroy as the President of Univision Interactive Media; previously Mr. Conroy was AOL’s Executive VP of Global Proudcts and Marketing. Expect further online developments from Univision soon, as well as clean-up of YouTube’s telenovela material.

CrunchBase Information on Televisa

CrunchBase Information on YouTube