The national newscasts began on
KMEX-DT in June 1, 1981 when the network was known as the Spanish International Network, and before the network's name change in 1987 was known as
Noticiero Nacional SIN. In 1987, Televisa owner
Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, who also oversaw SIN (then a subsidiary of the
Mexico City-based company), appointed former Televisa news anchor Jacobo Zabludovsky as
director of SIN's news division; the move met with protest among staff at the news division, concerned over the extent of the autonomy of SIN's news department and potential censorship in its journalistic practices (specifically, the reporting on the
Fidel Castro regime in
Cuba, which while recognized in Mexico, did not have aspects that led to the migration of Cubans to the United States), with most news staffers opting to quit. After Azcárraga and Emilio Nicolas, Sr. subsequently sold their interests in SIN parent Spanish International Communications to
Hallmark Cards after the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the
U.S. Justice Department asked them to sell the network to a U.S.-based company amid inquiries as to whether Nicolas was being used by the Azcárraga family to skirt the FCC's rules prohibiting foreign ownership of broadcast media, in 1987, the newly renamed Univision appointed Roberto FE Soto – a former producer at
NBC News – to produce a revamped flagship evening newscast,
Noticiero Univision, the latter becoming the network's youngest executive; the network also reassigned
Jorge Ramos – then the host of the network's first attempt at a
morning program, the two-hour-long
Mundo Latino – and hired veteran journalist
Maria Elena Salinas (the latter of whom replaced Teresa Rodriguez as anchor) to co-anchor the evolving network newscast. Then on April 14, 1997, Univision replaced reruns of Televisa-produced children's programs (such as
Plaza Sesamo {the Latin American version of
Sesame Street}) and re-entered into the morning news arena for the first time in eight years with the premiere of
¡Despierta América! ("Wake Up America!"). Maintaining a format similar to its English language counterparts, it was designed to compete with (and was loosely based on the format of)
Today,
ABC's
Good Morning America and
CBS This Morning, with a focus on the network's Hispanic and Latino target demographic. The program quickly grew into a major competitor, increasing Univision's viewership in its morning time period by more than 46% by April 1998, and developed a unique style in its reporting of various types of news stories (including health, lifestyle, fashion, beauty and entertainment news, the latter of which was featured as part of a segment called "échate pa' acá" ("Come here") with a focus on popular Latino actors and musicians). In 1998, Univision premiered a prime time investigative news magazine
Aquí y Ahora ("Here & Now"), which focuses on in-depth investigative pieces and interviews with newsmakers. From 2000 to 2010, Univision was the only major U.S. broadcast network to increase its news viewership, while its English-language counterparts on ABC, NBC and CBS each lost half of their total viewership. By the early 2000s, as the network expanded its national reach through the signing of new over-the-air affiliates, Univision's news programs had grown to regularly outrank its Spanish-language competitors, with the early-evening edition of
Noticiero Univision often placing ahead of its English language rivals (
NBC Nightly News,
ABC World News Tonight and the
CBS Evening News) among viewers in the 18-49 age demographic. On September 9, 2007, the network premiered the first
Sunday morning talk show on Spanish-language American television,
Al Punto ("On Point"), a program moderated by Jorge Ramos that features discussions on political and socioeconomic issues pertinent to Latino Americans. On December 9, 2010, Univision announced that it had hired
Isaac Lee as the president of its news division; His duties were expanded upon on October 4, 2013, when he was named
chief executive officer of its new cable news channel
Fusion, and further in February 2015, when he became president of Univision's digital media operations through a reorganization of that division. In March 2011, the network hosted its first Presidential town hall meeting; the televised special – which was watched by more than 2.7 million viewers, and featured anchor Jorge Ramos and
President Barack Obama – focused on the future of education in the United States. Noticias Univision would later produce two town hall debates between presidential incumbent Obama and
Republican challenger
Mitt Romney the following year in the run-up to the
2012 Presidential elections. Also in 2011, Noticias Univision formed two new departments within the news division: an investigative reporting unit, which was led by
Pulitzer Prize winner Gerardo Reyes, and a documentary unit, which produced several critically acclaimed films on issues affecting the Latin American and international communities. The division's expanded commitment to investigative journalism helped Noticias Univision earn multiple journalism awards since 2012 including
Peabody and
Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards for its investigative piece on
Operation Fast and Furious, two Gracie Awards, a Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism and fourteen other award wins for five documentaries produced by both units. In addition, the
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas with
Lifetime Achievement Awards at the
33rd News & Documentary Emmy Awards in 2012. In March 2013, Noticias Univision and
Participant Media announced a partnership to co-produce ten, one-hour documentaries to air on
Pivot Channel in English and on
Univision in Spanish. Three months later, in June of that year, the Documentary Unit produced
Violación de un Sueño ("Rape in the Fields"), which was produced in partnership with the
PBS documentary program
Frontline and the
Center for Investigative Reporting. ==Programming==