Melvin Van Peebles was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the 2000s. His feature film debut, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967), was based on his own French-language novel La Permission and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut Watermelon Man, in 1970. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker.
UniMás is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The network's programming, which is aimed at Hispanic Americans in the 18-34 age range, includes telenovelas and other serialized drama series, sports, sitcoms, reruns of imported series previously aired on parent network Univision, reality and variety series, and theatrically released feature films.
Mario Van Peebles is a Mexican-born American film director and actor best know for appearing in Heartbreak Ridge in 1986 and known for directing and starring in New Jack City in 1991 and USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage in 2016. He is the son of actor and filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, whom he portrayed in the 2003 biopic Baadasssss!, which he also co-wrote and directed.
Grupo TelevisaS.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican multimedia mass media and entertainment company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a 1971 American blaxploitation film written, co-produced, scored, edited, directed by, and starring Melvin Van Peebles. His son Mario Van Peebles also appears in a small role, playing the title character as a young boy. The film tells the picaresque story of a poor black man fleeing from the white police authorities.
KISF is a commercial radio station located in Las Vegas, Nevada. KISF airs a regional Mexican music format, and is the Las Vegas affiliate for El Bueno, La Mala, Y El Feo in the morning. Its studios are in Spring Valley and its transmitter is on Black Mountain in Henderson. KISF is owned by Latino Media Network; under a local marketing agreement, the station was programmed by previous owner TelevisaUnivision's Uforia Audio Network until it turned over full operations to the owner in June 2023.
TelevisaUnivision is a Mexican-American media company headquartered in New York and Mexico City that owns American Spanish language broadcast network Univision and free-to-air channels in Mexico such as Las Estrellas, Canal 5, Foro, and Canal 9 alongside a collection of specialty television channels and production studios. 45% of the company is held by the Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company Grupo Televisa, which was a major programming partner for Univision until the company sold their content assets to Univision in 2022.
Telemundo is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content nationally with programming syndicated worldwide to more than 100 countries in over 35 languages.
Cisneros Media is an entertainment company that broadcasts Spanish content in the United States and in other locations around the globe.
Univision is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes telenovelas and other drama series, sports, sitcoms, reality and variety series, news programming, and imported Spanish-language feature films. Univision is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and has its major studios, production facilities, and business operations based in Doral, Florida.
Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president of the Beverly Hills–Hollywood NAACP branch. He claimed the genre was "proliferating offenses" to the black community in its perpetuation of stereotypes often involved in crime. The genre does rank among the first after the race films in the 1940s and 1960s in which black characters and communities are the protagonists and subjects of film and television, rather than sidekicks, antagonists or victims of brutality. The genre's inception coincides with the rethinking of race relations in the 1970s.
Las Estrellas is one of the cornerstone networks of TelevisaUnivision, with affiliate stations all over Mexico, flagshipped at XEW-TDT in Mexico City. Many of the programs of Las Estrellas are seen in the United States on Univision, UniMás, and Galavisión.
Nueve is a Mexican free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The primary station and network namesake is Channel 9 of Mexico City, though the network has nationwide coverage on Televisa stations and some affiliates. Nueve offers a range of general entertainment programs.
Maya Entertainment Group, Inc. was an independent multi-platform video distribution company. Moctesuma Esparza founded the company in Los Angeles, California in 2007. Maya Entertainment procured and produced content that appealed to the new diverse American Latino and multi-cultural audiences. The company acquired a library of over 100 titles.
TUDN (pronounced tu-de-ene; formerly called Univision Deportes Network is an American Spanish language sports channel. Owned by TelevisaUnivision, it is an extension of the company's sports division of the same name, with TUDN the acronym of TelevisaUnivision Deportes Network. It launched on April 7, 2012, along with Univision Tlnovelas and FOROtv.
Pantelion Films is an American film production company that was created in 2010 and based in Santa Monica, California. The studio's goal is to bring wider theatrical distribution of movies aimed at Latino audiences. It is backed by TelevisaUnivision and Lionsgate. It has made theatrical relationships with movie exhibition chains including Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Theatres, Cinemex, and Cinemark. The studio's first film was 2011's From Prada to Nada, which Lionsgate and Grupo Televisa announced it had commissioned for a television series that did not materialize in 2012.
Alberto Ciurana was a Mexican television executive who worked as Chief Content & Distribution officer of TV Azteca. Previously, Ciurana served as President of Programming and Content for Univision Networks, where he oversaw programming for the entertainment broadcast and cable networks of Univision Communications Inc. Ciurana moved to Univision after working as VP of programming for Televisa for 15 years and was part of a steady expansion of Televisa influence at Univision that builds on the partnership struck among them in October 2010.
Pantaya was an American OTT streaming service targeted for Hispanic and Spanish-language viewers. Content included programs and films released in Latin America and original programming, as well as Spanish dubs from Lionsgate's select catalogue.
Armed is a 2018 action film written and directed by Mario Van Peebles. It stars Van Peebles and William Fichtner.
Videocine Entretenimiento is a Mexican film company, created and owned by TelevisaUnivision under its Televisa Cine brand. It is focused mainly on distributing and producing films for the Mexican market, while also distributing international films to the country.
