Inside TV upfront trends—TelevisaUnivision’s Donna Speciale talks tariff impact and big data transformation

As the TV upfront market looms ever closer, the unknowns of brands’ ability to make long-term media commitments become increasingly pronounced. TelevisaUnivision is counting on a combination of its investments in cross-platform ad efforts as well as the growth opportunity presented by U.S. Hispanic consumers to keep the media company on marketers’ must-buy list this year, said Donna Speciale, the company’s president of ad sales and marketing. Since Speciale was named TelevisaUnivision’s ad chief in 2021, the company has brought in more than 300 new advertisers—126 of them in 2024. The company has made continued efforts to expand its portfolio for advertisers, which may play in TelevisaUnivision’s favor given the current market volatility. TelevisaUnivision will put on a revamped upfront presentation on May 13 at 11:30 a.m. from Hall des Lumières, an immersive space known for hosting viral exhibitions that project the works of artists such as Gustav Klimt all around visitors. Also see: Ad Age’s 2025 TV Upfronts and NewFronts calendar In this year’s upfront, media buyers will look to consolidate dealmaking with “partners that have a large portfolio of different types of channels and brands—those that can hit all the buttons across the [marketing] funnel,” said one media buyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. While the buy-more-from-fewer-players battle cry is a familiar one, the buyer said market volatility caused by President Donald Trump’s trade tariff flip-flopping exacerbates the need to commit ad dollars only to the must-buys and leave the rest for shorter-term commitments. Read more: How tariffs may impact media spending Speciale is hoping that selectiveness will play in TelevisaUnivision’s favor. The company has been building its branded content capabilities and influencer programs via Así Studios, which Speciale said serves to connect U.S. brands to multicultural creators with global followings and gives digital advertisers a lower-cost entry point into media partnerships that they’ve seen scale into larger TV buying. TelevisaUnivision also launched its streaming service Vix in 2022, which the company announced had surpassed 50 million monthly active users at last year’s upfront. Speciale sat down with Ad Age to discuss the potential impact of trade tariffs and economic volatility on the upfront as well as what the shift to big data measurement means for TelevisaUnivision’s business and the overall marketplace. Additionally, political pressure on brands has also called diversity practices into question. This has shifted the emphasis of multicultural marketing more heavily from inclusive programming initiatives celebrating heritage months, as an example, to business objectives, agency leaders in diverse investment previously told Ad Age. This dynamic may favor mega media operations such as TelevisaUnivision over smaller diverse-owned media companies, which had been the recipients of DEI spending commitments made alongside the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Read more: How the war on DEI is changing the media marketplace The U.S. Hispanic demographic made up 19.5% of the U.S. population in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, “and short-term and long-term clients are realizing that they cannot grow their business without the Hispanic audience,” said Speciale. TelevisaUnivision will continue to lean into the sports and experiential marketing opportunities as advertisers prioritize mass reach with consumers. While the 2026 FIFA World Cup will air its Spanish-language coverage on competitor Telemundo (it will air on Fox in English), TelevisaUnivision hosts qualifying matches throughout its Road to World Cup, including a partnership with streamer Dazn to sell ad space in all 63 matches of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. Media buyers previously told Ad Age that clients would be seeking inventory to spread their sports budgets across as tentpole events such as the World Cup get increasingly expensive, market demand rises and advertisers want to spread investments for short-run events further. Speciale teased that TelevisaUnivision would also be unveiling “a very ambitious music strategy” at its upfront show to put brands in its music events and platforms. The new offering will be an expansion of Sistema Uforia, a program the media company announced at last year’s upfront, offering sponsorships across a series of Latin Music festivals and concerts. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What is your upfront strategy given the market volatility caused by the tariff uncertainty? Clients are obviously feeling uneasy, but they are focusing. When we talk to marketers, there still is a focus on finding areas of growth—they have to continue to grow regardless of what’s going to happen with tariffs. They’re going to have to do some shifting. Clients and marketers have been wanting more and more flexibility. The more that the clients have been putting their dollars into the streaming business and CTV, a lot of those Ts and Cs [terms and conditions] have been on the digital end, and those have flexibility—they can get out of streaming in a much shorter time period than linear. Does that change the spend you expect to see in the upfront versus what may come in scatter? It’s possible. Upfront and scatter are just marketplaces in time, and one year is never the same as the next. Conversations might have started heating up earlier, but right now, people are waiting and they don’t know what their budgets are. Money will be placed in the upfront. There are options for a reason. There is flexibility built into the upfront. But if the money’s not in the upfront, then the money ends up coming into scatter. The money will be there, it’s just a matter of when they’re comfortable putting it in. Some years [upfront deals] happen right around Memorial Day; some years, they continue through July and early August. It’s really just a matter of being flexible for the marketers, being there for what their needs and wants are, and being able to deal with every category and the nuances that they are all dealing with. This year, Nielsen is sunsetting panel-only as currency, and you’ve been vocal about the shortcomings of panel measurement for multicultural viewership. What is your POV on measurement and currency this year given the changes? I’m thrilled. We’ve been beating this drum for the past two years. The Hispanic market and multicultural audiences have been underrepresented for years. We see a huge increase in ratings [on Nielsen’s Big Data plus Panel] because of the underrepresentation. Now, everybody has to adhere to it—it’s not going to be a choice anymore. Obviously, it’ll be a discussion of negotiations, and there could be price implications. We’ve been dealing on VideoAmp as well. A lot of our audience targeting deals are on VideoAmp. We do not have a lot of deals on iSpot. That’s really only due to the marketers and what they want—it has nothing to do with us not wanting to partner with iSpot. How much of your upfront deals last year were done on a big data currency? Last year, we did about 10% to 15% of our deals on big data. Does that mean all problems are solved this year? Or is there another measurement goal now that the first hurdle of adoption is being overcome? All of the measurements, whether it’s Nielsen or VideoAmp, still have nuances and idiosyncrasies. We all know Nielsen’s not perfect—this isn’t changing that, but it’s what we all have. It’s the standard. It makes it easy for marketers. Marketers definitely have a challenge when there’s not standardization across the board for them to be able to compare all of their partners on an equal playing field. If we’re doing deals in linear and streaming, across my local and my national stations, utopia in measurement company, to me, is to be able to have a client be able to see how they’re all working together harmoniously. Nielsen has to get to Big Data Plus Panel to even come close to getting to that next level. Ad Age’s Data-Driven Marketing Playbook takes place May 22

Inside TV upfront trends—TelevisaUnivision’s Donna Speciale talks tariff impact and big data transformation

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