TelevisaUnivision is bringing Univision back to Puerto Rico, restoring the flagship Spanish-language network to direct over-the-air television on the island beginning Monday, March 23. The company said its programming will air on WSTE Canal 7, giving viewers across Puerto Rico access to Univision's lineup of entertainment, sports and news programming.
The move marks a significant return for a brand that, while never entirely absent from Puerto Rico, lost its main local broadcast identity there several years ago. Under the new arrangement, Puerto Rico viewers will once again be able to watch programs such as Despierta América, Siéntese Quien Pueda, Desiguales, El Gordo y La Flaca and Primer Impacto, along with entertainment formats including Juego de Voces, ¿Quién Caerá? and Código de Investigación. TelevisaUnivision also said the lineup will include N+ Univision news programming, including Noticiero Univision and Esta Semana con Ilia Calderón y Enrique Acevedo.
For Puerto Rico, the return is notable because Univision's main presence on the island effectively ended in early 2021, when WLII, long known as Univision Puerto Rico, stopped operating under that brand and re-emerged as TeleOnce. That transition followed Univision's August 2020 announcement that it would sell WLII-DT in Caguas-San Juan, along with its repeaters WOLE-DT in Aguadilla and WSUR-DT in Ponce, to Liberman Media Group. The company said at the time that it would retain WSTE-DT, known as TeleIsla Channel 7, as well as its radio properties.
The sale was not described as a shutdown of Univision in Puerto Rico, but it did end the network's long-standing role as the primary on-air identity of WLII. Univision said the divestiture was part of a broader transaction tied to the company's ownership restructuring, with the station sale expected to close alongside the change in control involving ForgeLight and Searchlight Capital Partners. In practical terms, that meant Univision stepped away from the stations that had served as its central television platform on the island.
After the sale, Liberman continued operating the stations and revived the TeleOnce brand. For a time, TeleOnce still carried a mix of local productions and TelevisaUnivision programming through an affiliation agreement. But that chapter also came to an end. TVboricuaUSA reported that the affiliation between Liberman Media Group and TelevisaUnivision expired in December 2025, prompting major programming changes at TeleOnce heading into 2026.
That change appears to have paved the way for TelevisaUnivision to use the station it kept, WSTE Canal 7, as the new direct home for Univision programming in Puerto Rico.
Local media reports said that after the affiliation ended, TelevisaUnivision began using WSTE to carry programming originating from Univision and UniMás in the United States, including the live shows produced in the national headquarters in Miami..
The company's latest announcement signals that strategy is now being formalized under the Univision brand. It also strengthens TelevisaUnivision's reach in a market of nearly 3.2 million Spanish-speaking residents, while reconnecting Puerto Rican audiences with marquee live events such as Premio Lo Nuestro, Premios Juventud and the Latin Grammys, all central pieces of the network's U.S. Spanish-language identity.
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