Disney-ABC International Television Latin America and Univision Sign Unprecedented Strategic Production Agreement

Desperate Housewives / Amas de Casa Desesperadas For Hispanic Viewers in the United States

Miami, FL -- Univision, one of the top five broadcast networks in the United States, and Disney-ABC International Television Latin America, the international television distribution and production arm of The Walt Disney Company, have signed an unprecedented strategic production agreement. The agreement, which extends Univision’s commitment to present the most captivating programming of interest to Hispanics and carries on Disney-ABC International Television Latin America’s expansion strategy, involves the special production of the successful ABC series Desperate Housewives for Hispanic viewers in the United States.

Desperate Housewives, one of the highest-rated series internationally and the winner of a Golden Globe for Best TV Series / Musical or Comedy, is distributed to more than 200 countries throughout the world and currently has three original productions for the Latin American market. Disney-ABC International Television Latin America and the Univision Network will produce this version. The series will be called Amas de Casa Desesperadas and will air next season in Primetime.

Alina Falcon, Univision Network Executive Vice President and Operating Manager, and Fernando Barbosa, a Disney-ABC International Television Latin America Senior Vice President, signed the milestone agreement.

We are delighted to join forces with Disney-ABC International Television Latin America on such an exciting property as Amas de Casa Desesperadas said Falcon. Our collaboration enables us to provide a premier production of this renowned television series specifically for U.S. Hispanic viewers and deliver more of the best in entertainment that they have come to expect from Univision.

This strategic agreement between Disney-ABC International Television Latin America and Univision Network is the result of a common objective to provide U.S. Hispanic viewers with an outstanding original television production of Amas de Casa Desesperadas, based on ABC Television’s highly successful original property, Desperate Housewives. This establishes a new benchmark in the industry in many respects. We expect great success from this collaborative initiative of both Domestic and International divisions of Disney-ABC Worldwide Television as well as Univision Network, said Diego Lerner, President, Walt Disney Company Latin America.
To us, this venture represents the beginning of new, out of the box content to the U.S. Hispanic TV market, through the number one U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster, Univision. It also represents the consolidation of our international versions of Desperate Housewives, locally produced in Argentina. This is the first time that our TV content, produced in Latin America, debuts in the leading U.S. Hispanic Primetime slot, expressed Fernando Barbosa, Senior Vice President Disney-ABC International Television Latin America. Needless to say, we are extremely happy and look forward to the success of this initiative and partnership.
While this production agreement marks the first joint venture between Disney-ABC International Television Latin America and Univision, Disney-ABC Domestic Television has been licensing movies and off-network series to the network for several years, paving the way for the new endeavor. This collaboration is a natural extension of the existing partnership between Disney-ABC Domestic Television and Univision, said Jared Goetz, Senior Vice President, Southeast Region Sales, Disney-ABC Domestic Television. We are excited to take Disney’s relationship with Univision to the next level by providing an original production for the U.S. market and we hope that this is the first of many new endeavors.

Like previous Spanish-language versions, POL-KA Producciones in Buenos Aires, Argentina, will produce Amas de Casa Desesperadas for the Univision Network. Its format and scripts will follow the original U.S. version, adapted to the preferences of U.S. Hispanics.

The world-renowned cast of stars for Amas de Casa Desesperadas will be announced separately.