Vix (streaming service)

• 1. Introduction

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  Vix is a streaming service for Spanish-language audiences. It carries live football from Europe and the Americas, original telenovelas, and biopics of Mexican cultural icons. It began not as a media company but as a digital radio startup founded in North Carolina in 1999. Three founders named Troy McConnell, Luis Brandwayn, and Jochen Fischer called it Planet Networks. How did that startup grow into a platform holding UEFA and CONCACAF football rights? Why did four separate streaming services eventually fold into a single brand? The answers begin with an online radio service that could react to a listener's location, surfacing music based on what they had already chosen.

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• 2. Batanga Radio's Blueprint

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  Every time a track played on Batanga Radio, the service offered five similar songs for the listener to explore, add, or save. Users created hundreds of thousands of custom stations every month and streamed millions of songs per year. The app was built to respond to individual taste. Listeners could tell it to add or remove specific artists, songs, genres, or entire decades of music. Song lyrics appeared on every song page and displayed alongside each track as it played.

  Batanga Media's digital properties extended beyond audio, including Batanga.com, iMujer.com, and BolsadeMulher.com. By 2016, the company had grown to operate in 14 countries, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. That year, Batanga Media and Discovery Networks became partners. One year before that partnership, Batanga Media had already launched a separate website under a new name: Vix.

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• 3. Taking the Vix Name

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  In early 2017, Batanga Media announced it was leaving its founding name behind and rebranding entirely as Vix. The company's announcement described a new editorial approach: 'We create content that sparks curiosity and adds value to millions of people every day.' That content ran in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, distributed across Vix.com and through Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

  Vix reported more than 50 million social followers at the time of the rebrand. Its content was reaching over 325 million people every month. The company described itself as the largest independent digital media content company for the U.S. Hispanic market, Latin America, and Brazil. On the 13th of January 2021, Univision announced it was building a new streaming service called PrendeTV. Univision's next move would be to acquire the Vix platform itself.

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• 4. PrendeTV and Acquisition

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  Univision's PrendeTV was designed as a free, ad-supported platform. On the 1st of February 2021, before PrendeTV had even launched publicly, Univision moved to acquire the existing Vix service. At that moment, Vix was considered the largest Spanish-language AVOD service in existence. AVOD means ad-supported video on demand: viewers watch for free but see advertisements. PrendeTV launched in the United States on the 30th of March 2021. Vix retained its own branding in countries outside the United States.

  Less than a month after Univision completed its merger with Televisa to form TelevisaUnivision, the new company announced a major sports deal. On the 3rd of May 2021, TelevisaUnivision said it had secured broadcast rights for Euro 2020 for PrendeTV and TUDN. Rights for football leagues in Brazil and Argentina followed. In June 2021, TelevisaUnivision outlined a broader goal: the four services it now controlled would merge into a single platform. Those four were PrendeTV, Vix, Univision Now, and Blim TV. The target date was 2022, and the relaunched service would include both a free tier and a new paid subscription offering.

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• 5. One Unified Service

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  In February 2022, TelevisaUnivision confirmed the merger it had announced eight months earlier. PrendeTV, Blim TV, and the original Vix ad-supported service would all be absorbed into the free tier of a relaunched Vix. On the 31st of March 2022, the merged service went live under the Vix name. On the 21st of July 2022, a paid subscription tier called Vix+ launched alongside it. Vix+ offered Mexican audiences live coverage of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, along with premium original series and films.

  In April 2023, TelevisaUnivision decided to retire the Vix+ name. CEO Wade Davis explained the reasoning to Wall Street analysts. Davis said the change 'will not change the strategy at all.' The service would improve, he added, 'as Vix for free with advertising and its paid version.' The paid tier was renamed Vix Premium. Sometime around 2024, the service was abruptly discontinued in Brazil. A deal announced in December 2024 pointed toward fresh territory: TelevisaUnivision and the Spanish broadcaster Atresmedia agreed to bring Vix to Spain.

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• 6. Sports Rights and Expansion

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  On the 28th of January 2025, Vix went live in Spain through Atresplayer. The service's sports portfolio covered Liga MX, the Mexico national football team, and CONCACAF competitions. In Mexico, it also carried La Liga on a one-match-per-week basis, the NFL, Major League Baseball, and both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. In the United States, Vix carried the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League. Copa América and, from 2026, the Argentine Primera División were also part of the U.S. rights package.

  In May 2025, TelevisaUnivision and Disney Entertainment announced a multiregional distribution deal. As of the 9th of June 2025, Vix Premium subscribers in Mexico gained access to Disney+ Standard with Ads as part of their subscription. In the United States, TelevisaUnivision's channels were added to Hulu + Live TV as of the 3rd of June. For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Vix holds exclusive streaming rights to all 104 matches in Mexico. The World Baseball Classic also falls in 2026: Vix will carry all of Mexico's matches, one semifinal, and the final.

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