Hispanic viewers are leading America’s shift to streaming, and nowhere does that matter more than South Florida. Miami–Fort Lauderdale is the third-largest Hispanic TV market in the United States, with nearly a million Hispanic TV homes. For businesses advertising in Miami-Dade and Broward, reaching Hispanic consumers isn’t a niche strategy. It’s the market.
This post builds on Digiday’s “Future of TV Briefing: Hispanic TV and streaming viewership in 4 charts” (October 2026), which analyzes Nielsen data on how Hispanic audiences watch TV. It draws on studies from Nielsen and Horowitz Research. Credit to Digiday for the national picture; the local context is ours.
Hispanic viewers are ahead of the curve on streaming
Nationally, Hispanic audiences stream more than the rest of the country:
- 59% of Hispanic TV time is streaming. Digiday’s analysis of Nielsen data for January through June 2026 splits Hispanic viewers’ TV time into 59% streaming, 24% English-language traditional TV and 17% Spanish-language traditional TV.
- Ahead of the U.S. average. In Nielsen’s 2025 report, streaming was 55.8% of Hispanic viewers’ TV time, compared with 46% for the total U.S.
- 19.1% of all U.S. streaming minutes. Hispanic viewers accounted for nearly 1 in 5 of all U.S. streaming minutes from January through June 2026, according to Nielsen’s 2026 Hispanic Diverse Intelligence Series report. As Digiday notes, that’s roughly in line with Hispanic Americans’ share of the U.S. population.
- YouTube is huge. Nielsen’s 2025 report found YouTube makes up nearly 21% of Spanish-speaking audiences’ TV time.
Free, ad-supported streaming is a big opportunity
Digiday also highlights a 2026 Horowitz Research study of Latinx viewers that matters to advertisers, because it’s about free, ad-supported streaming TV (known as FAST), services like Tubi, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel and ViX’s free tier:
- 59% of Latinx FAST users watch Hispanic-themed or Spanish-language programming on free streaming services every week.
- 45% of Latinx FAST users say the growing availability of free streaming led them to cancel at least one paid streaming subscription.
Every move from a paid, ad-free subscription to a free, ad-supported service is another viewer who sees commercials. For local advertisers, that means more places to reach Hispanic households with targeted streaming ads.
Spanish-language TV and live sports still matter
Streaming is growing, but traditional TV isn’t going away for Hispanic audiences, especially in Spanish:
- 42% of Hispanic viewers’ traditional TV time goes to Spanish-language networks, per Nielsen, such as Univision and Telemundo.
- Sports dominate. Hispanic viewers watched 149 billion minutes of sports across traditional TV and live streaming in the first half of 2026, and 97 of their top 100 broadcasts were sports.
The takeaway for advertisers: the best Hispanic media plans aren’t either-or. They combine streaming, Spanish-language TV and live sports. (More on why sports is king.)
Why this matters so much in South Florida
In most U.S. markets, Hispanic consumers are a segment. In South Florida, they’re the majority of the market:
- #3 Hispanic TV market in the U.S. Nielsen’s January 2026 estimates count 946,260 Hispanic TV homes in the Miami–Fort Lauderdale market, behind only Los Angeles and New York.
- Miami-Dade County is about 70% Hispanic. U.S. Census Bureau estimates put the Hispanic or Latino share of Miami-Dade’s population at 70.3%.
- Broward County is about a third Hispanic. The Census Bureau puts Broward at 34.4%, and growing.
South Florida’s Hispanic community is also uniquely diverse: Cuban, Colombian, Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, Nicaraguan, Dominican, Peruvian, Argentine and more. Many households are bilingual and move between English and Spanish depending on the show, the screen and the moment. One message translated word for word rarely connects with all of them.
What this means for local advertisers
- Plan for Hispanic audiences from the start, not as an add-on. In Miami-Dade, they are most of your customers.
- Use both languages. English-language streaming and TV reach bilingual households; Spanish-language TV, radio and streaming reach Spanish-dominant ones.
- Follow them to streaming, including free streaming. With 59% of Hispanic TV time on streaming and many viewers moving to free, ad-supported services, streaming TV ads targeted by ZIP code and language are a must.
- Don’t skip Spanish-language TV and sports. Univision, Telemundo and live sports still deliver big, loyal audiences.
- Create culturally relevant creative. Commercials written and produced for the community, not just translated.
How Sunray Media Consultants helps
We’re a South Florida team, and we plan and buy English- and Spanish-language TV, radio and streaming every month for local businesses. We produce bilingual commercials, target the neighborhoods and audiences you want across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, and report what the campaigns produce. See our TV and radio media buying, video production and audio production services, and read why Americans stream more TV than anyone in the world.
South Florida is one of the most important Hispanic markets in the country. Book a free marketing diagnostic and we’ll show you how to reach it.
Sources
- Digiday, “Future of TV Briefing: Hispanic TV and streaming viewership in 4 charts” (October 2026), including Digiday’s analysis of Nielsen data for January–June 2026.
- Nielsen, 2026 Hispanic Diverse Intelligence Series report (first half of 2026).
- Nielsen, “Hispanic consumers overindex on streaming consumption versus rest of U.S.” (2025).
- Horowitz Research, 2026 State of Viewing Behaviors: FOCUS Latinx, as reported by Digiday.
- Nielsen, Local Television Market Universe Estimates, January 1, 2026 (Hispanic TV homes by market).
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: Miami-Dade County and Broward County, Hispanic or Latino share of population (2020–2024 American Community Survey).
