By Cassandra Garrison

MEXICO CITY (Reuters] – Grupo Televisa, a Mexican broadcast giant, and Univision, a U.S.-based streaming company, are preparing to launch the most Spanish-language platform for Spanish-speaking viewers in the second half of 2022. This is according to Televisa’s head.

TelevisaUnivision will be the new company and combine both broadcasters’ content to reach nearly 600 million Spanish-speaking people around the world.

Televisa’s Chief Executive Alfonso de Angoitia explained that an advertisement-based version will be launched in the first quarter and that a subscription-based model will follow in the second.

This streaming platform, yet to be named, joins an already crowded field that includes heavyweights like Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ)’s Prime and Walt Disney (NYSE:) Co’s Plus (NASDAQ:) and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ :), last year announcing a $300 million investment in original Mexican productions.

De Angoitia is the executive chairman of TelevisaUnivision’s board.

“We’ll be a strong competitor,” he stated, noting that the service will offer at least one weekly “high-quality” movie or series as a subscription.

The platform will be available to customers in Mexico and the United States simultaneously, before being expanded in Latin America and Spain.

After the April announcement of TelevisaUnivision’s plans, a sort of turf war began. Televisa was able to nab executives from Disney Plus, Netflix, and other networks. Televisa was able to attract top talent from other companies, which enabled it to increase its competitiveness and exclusivity in contracts, De Angoitia stated.

Among those involved in productions are Selena Gomez (American singer/actor), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peruvian writer), Maria Duenas (Spanish author), Eugenio Derbez (Mexican comedian) and Maria Duenas Llosa (Spanish writer).

De Angoitia explained that enough money will be generated by the new business to allow them to invest in content worth hundreds of million of dollars.

After a turbulent week for Mexico’s telecoms industry, the TelevisaUnivision agreement was finally completed. The highly-anticipated vote of the Federal Telecommunications Institute was left America Movil (NYSE:), The country’s biggest telecoms company, has lost its license to access the pay-TV sector of the country. This prospect had rattled Televisa and other competitors.

De Angoitia stated that “in the telecommunications industry, we haven’t seen effective competition yet it is not the right time for America Movil to grant that change,” adding that “the IFT could do more” in order to regulate competition.

De Angoitia stated that a pay TV entry by America Movil (which is already dominant in internet and mobile services) would “increasingly make it difficult to compete.”

The TelevisaUnivision acquisition is partially funded by a Series C preferred Investment of $1 billion led by SoftBank Latin American Fund. Participants include ForgeLight (NASDAQ:), The Raine Group and Google (NASDAQ.). These companies also provided technical assistance and engineers.

Softbank (OTC) announced last week that Marcelo Claure had resigned as its chief operating officer following an argument over compensation. De Angoitia stated that Claure would retain his place on Univision’s board.

($1 = 20.8655 Mexican pesos