New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Univision Communications Inc., the leading media company serving Hispanic America, today hosted its annual Upfront presentation to unveil its 2015-16 programming line-up and to highlight how targeting U.S. Hispanics through Univision's multiplatform portfolio is the way forward for marketers to fuel growth. At the UCI Upfront event, Univision announced that "La Banda," the music-based, multi-media competition show developed by
Simon Cowell's SYCO Entertainment and Haim Saban's Saban Brands and co-produced with FremantleMedia Latin
America is back for a second season.
Simon Cowell as executive producer brings SYCO Entertainment's trademark talent for finding stars and creating great entertainment to Spanish-language television for the first time this fall. For the second season, "La Banda 2" will scour the U.S. for the ultimate Latina girl super group.
With its signature new take on the singing competition show format, "La Banda 2" will search the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Representing Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, female contestants will compete for their place in "La Banda 2."
"Music plays a central role in the lives of Hispanics and we are pleased to continue to bring new musical projects to our audience via this exciting new platform," said Alberto Ciurana, president, Programming and Content, Univision Communications Inc. "We're thrilled to collaborate once again with
Simon Cowell's SYCO Entertainment as part of our commitment to entertain and empower Hispanic Americans through the programming they crave."
"I am absolutely delighted to be announcing Season 2 of 'La Banda'," said
Simon Cowell. "The enthusiasm for this format is already very exciting and most importantly we are seeing some incredibly promising talent. Univision and Saban Brands are brilliant, music-focused, passionate partners and we are all looking forward to next year's search for a Latina girl group."
"La Banda 2" will continue in its Sunday night primetime position on the Univision Network in 2016.
Simon Cowell,
Kelly Belldegrun and Nigel Hall will executive produce "La Banda 2" for SYCO Entertainment and Cisco Suarez will executive produce for Univision.
UCI's Upfront event also included a special guest appearance by President Bill Clinton, who provided his perspective on the importance and influence of the Hispanic community to the country's economic and political future, as well as a musical performance by international superstar, Ricky Martin.