Fiktiv USA - MundoMax

MundoMax (originally known as MundoFox from August 13, 2012 to July 28, 2015) is an American Spanish-language broadcast television network that is owned by RCN Televisión. The network broadcasts programs aimed at Hispanic and Latino American audiences throughout the United States – featuring a mix of telenovelas and other serialized dramas, reality television series, game shows, and feature films (both Spanish-dubbed versions of American films and imported films produced in Spanish-speaking countries).

Headquartered in New York City, MundoMax has been headed since October 2016 by network president Víctor Herrera.

Fox International Channels first used the "mundoFOX" name in 2006, as the brand for the website of the group's Latin American cable channel Canal Fox. In early 2009, the channel's website introduced a video on demand streaming service for Canal Fox programs that provided programming in both Spanish and Portuguese, which was also branded as mundoFOX (the domain name for Canal Fox's website was changed to canalfox.com in early 2012).

MundoMax traces its origins to the announcement by Fox International Channels and RCN Televisión that the two companies would jointly launch a new Spanish language television network in the United States under the MundoFox brand on January 23, 2012. Hernán López, president and CEO of Fox International Channels, said that the network would cater to "an increasing demand for quality Spanish-language content in the U.S. from both viewers and advertisers." According to 2010 United States Census data, among the 430 million people residing in the U.S., 50 million of them were of some form of Hispanic and Latino heritage (totaling 16% of the total population); advertising revenue from the Hispanic/Latino market made up $3.6 billion of the $80 billion (or 4.5% of all ad revenue) in the total domestic market in 2011. López noted that the Fox Broadcasting Company saw "similar dynamics in play" when News Corp (the corporate parent of Fox International Channels at the time of the announcement) launched the network in October 1986 against established English language networks ABC, NBC and CBS; MundoFox, he added, would seek to replicate Fox's early years while launching against established Spanish language networks Univision, Telemundo and Azteca América.

MundoFox commenced programming with a soft launch on some of its charter affiliates on August 1, 2012; the network's formal launch occurred twelve days later on August 13. Until it rebranding as MundoMax, MundoFox was headquartered with News Corp's other U.S. television operations in Los Angeles, California.

On July 16, 2015, News Corp announced that it had sold its stake in MundoFox to RCN Televisión, giving the Colombian private broadcaster full ownership of the network. Fox International Channels president Herman Lopez stated that the company was "proud of having started MundoFox with RCN and are confident that they will realize all of the potential of the network."

On July 28, 2015, RCN announced that it would rebrand the network as MundoMax effective that day; the name change and new imaging package was fully implemented on-air two weeks later on August 13, coinciding with the third anniversary of the network's launch; however, the logo used by the network under the MundoFox identity remained in use as on-screen bug during programming and on the network's Facebook and Twitter accounts until the rebrand was completed.

MundoMax currently operates on a 126-hour network programming schedule, which it adopted in January 2015. It provides general entertainment programming to owned-and-operated and affiliated stations Monday through Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time. Children's programming blocks under the brands "NatGeoKids" and "XtremaMax" – the former of which features programs compliant with FCC educational programming requirements – airs for three hours each Sunday starting at 9:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time. All other time periods are filled with religious programming or infomercials.

MundoMax has production and distribution agreements with companies including network parent RCN (as well as RCN co-owned NTN24), former co-parent Fox International Channels and Banijay (which produced the company's first Spanish-language programs for the network); Fox Deportes originally supplied content for the network prior to the divestiture of Fox's interest. Prior to the launch of what began as MundoFox, Fox International Channels was already a major producer of Spanish-language programming and sports for its Latin American and U.S. Hispanic-oriented cable channels, with some of the international programs being distributed to the network for broadcast in the United States. RCN is one of the largest producers and exporters of Spanish-language television programming, and had previously provided content mainly to Univision sister network TeleFutura (now UniMás); it stopped committing productions to other Hispanic-targeted networks in the U.S. in anticipation of MundoFox's launch.

A signature program format on MundoMax is the "teleseries", which produce fewer episodes compared to telenovelas traditionally seen on Spanish-language television (roughly 80 versus an average of 120), but emphasize action-oriented storylines, diverse locations and increased production values. One such teleseries that appeared on MundoFox at its launch was El Capo, a show produced for RCN by Fox Telecolombia. Once-a-week series are also featured – which air on weekend evenings – including fellow inaugural programs Kdabra and Tiempo Final ("No Return"); the network also airs current and classic telenovelas during the daytime hours (among the initial titles featured on its daytime lineup included Yo Soy Betty, la Fea ("I Am Betty, the Ugly"), the Colombian series that served as the basis for the Televisa novela La Fea Más Bella and the ABC comedy-drama series Ugly Betty, which returned to the network in November 2014). Telenovelas originally aired on the network only on weekdays and in late-night on Saturdays; in April 2014, the network added a three-hour block of comedic and seriocomic telenovelas on Saturday afternoons (which was inaugurated with the network debuts of La Playita ("The Beach"), Las Clinicas ("The Clinic") and the teen-oriented Chica Vampiro ("Vampire Girl")).

Until June 30, 2014, MundoFox filled much of its late night and early morning schedule with same-day repeats of telenovelas and teleseries from its daytime schedule as well as novelas exclusive to the late night schedule; the network dropped the overnight and morning repeats on July 1, 2014, replacing them with a mix of Spanish-dubbed and English language infomercials in the 1:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time slot, giving it the highest infomercial total of any fully programmed commercial television network in the U.S. (MundoFox's nine hours of daily paid programming content surpassed the six hours carried by competitor Estrella TV among the Spanish broadcast networks, and the eight hours carried by Ion Television (until that network reduced its infomercial block to six hours in January 2015) amongst all networks).

In addition to offering entertainment content, MundoMax operates its own news division, Noticias MundoMax, which aims to offer content that is conscious of the Hispanic market in the United States and the diversity and sensitivities of the different demographics that comprise that market. Noticias MundoMax's operations include a Los Angeles-based newsroom and a bureau in Washington, D.C., and also includes international news content from NTN24, RCN Televisión's sister network and international cable news channel.

Noticias MundoMax produces a weekday evening news program of the same name that is anchored by Rolando Nichols on weekdays and Palmira Pérez on weekends, and originates from Los Angeles; two live half-hour early evening newscasts are produced every day, one for the east coast and the other for the west coast (originally airing at 6:00 p.m., before moving to 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time in 2013) as well as a weekday late evening newscast at 10:35 p.m. ET, which is lighter in tone compared to the 5:30 p.m. edition. In 2013, the network launched a supplementary news and features program, MundoMax Y Ya!, which serves as a lead-in to the early evening Noticias MundoMax broadcast.

Sports programming featured on MundoMax is produced by Claro Sports, and includes live games from Ascenso MX and Liga MX Femenil, as well as American football, boxing, CMLL wrestling, baseball, and mixed martial arts.

As of October 2015, MundoMax has current and pending affiliation agreements with 60 additional television stations in 57 television markets, encompassing 22 U.S. and two Mexican states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. possession of Puerto Rico. Counting only conventional over-the-air affiliates, the network has a combined national reach of 38.83% of all households in the United States (or 121,322,371 Americans with at least one television set).

In the eight months between the announcement of its formation and the network's formal launch, MundoMax expected to have an estimated national affiliate reach of 75% of U.S. households with at least one television set at the time of its launch. By early March 2012, the network reached charter affiliation deals with 20 stations including KWHY-TV in Los Angeles (which serves as the network's West Coast flagship station), WJAN-CD in Miami, KGMC in Fresno and KFWD in Dallas–Fort Worth. These early deals gave MundoFox affiliates in five of the top 10 Hispanic markets and cover at least 40% of U.S. Hispanic households.

48 stations from MundoFox's initial 50-station affiliate body also committed to developing in-house news departments to provide locally produced Spanish language newscasts to the markets served by the stations, a small number of whom do not have a Spanish language news option on local television (KWHY and WJAN-CD already operate their own news departments). Some affiliates that do not carry full-fledged newscasts may produce two-minute local news capsules inserted into the network’s Noticias MundoMax national evening newscasts, weather updates and/or air local public affairs programming.