Univision teams with Netflix for 'El Chapo' drama series
NEW YORK (AP) - Univision's parent company is teaming up with Netflix to produce "El Chapo," a drama series based on the life of one of the world's most notorious criminals. It will air on Univision sister network UniMas in 2017, after which it will be available to Netflix subscribers.
The announcement, part of an agreement between Netflix and Univision Communications Inc., was made Tuesday to advertisers during Univision's presentation of its 2016-17 plans for its suite of networks.
New series for the Univision network include:
- "Mujeres de Negro" (Women in Black), a drama about a group of women who hatch a scheme to take control of their lives by killing their husbands, then seeking out new adventures freed from marital bonds.
- "Tres Veces Ana" (The Three Sides of Ana), a drama starring Angelique Boyer playing triplets with very different personalities and three distinct love stories.
- "Vino el Amor" (Then Love Arrived), a telenovela, set in Napa Valley, California, that traces the life of Mexican-Americans seeking not only the American Dream but also success with family and love.
- "40 y 20," a comedy about a divorced 40-year-old dad and his 20-year-old son who live together like bachelors.
- "Super X's," a comedy about two pals, both of whom are slackers - until one of them mysteriously gains supernatural powers.
Univision also said it will partner with Netflix to bring the streaming-video outlet's "Narcos" to broadcast television.
The first season of this acclaimed Netflix series will air on the Univision network, the company announced. In addition, the Netflix series "Club de Cuervos" will air on UniMas.
It will be the first time original Netflix series have aired on broadcast networks in the U.S., Univision said. No airdates were announced, but scheduling will be timed to the premiere of both series' second seasons exclusively on Netflix.
"Narcos" chronicles real-life stories of Colombian drug kingpins of the late 1980s - most notably Pablo Escobar - and the efforts by law enforcement to rein them in.
"Club de Cuervos," which also debuted on Netflix last August, takes an inside look at a family's internal squabble to determine who will control a beloved professional soccer team.
Earlier this week, rival Spanish-language network Telemundo announced its own series to be based on drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who was arrested in January after almost six months on the run following his escape from a Mexican maximum-security prison through a mile-long tunnel that opened to the floor of his shower.
Although Telemundo, which is owned by NBCUniversal, has long been a distant second in the Spanish-language marketplace, it has recently been closing the gap with Univision, whose prime-time average of 2.06 million viewers this season has slipped 29 percent from the year before, when it drew an average 2.89 million viewers. Meanwhile, Telemundo has enjoyed an uptick, from 1.32 million last year to 1.43 million this year.