Telemundo: Series y TV en vivo

Review by eFreeware

If your household already watches Telemundo on cable, the network's own app is the most direct way to keep up with the novelas and series you follow. It is built for Spanish-speaking viewers in the United States who want full episodes, live channels and a broad catalog of Telemundo and NBCUniversal programming. The app is free, and it carries advertising.

What I like about the proposition is the mix of old and new. The app gathers current Telemundo originals, classic telenovelas, Turkish dramas in Spanish, and the network's talk and reality shows in one place, then adds live TV and on-demand content from the wider NBCUniversal family of networks. That range is the reason the install numbers make sense: this is not a single-show companion app but a full streaming catalog for a specific audience.

The app has been on Google Play since September 2013 and now shows more than 5 million installs, with a 4.7 average across 75,678 ratings. Those numbers tell you the audience is established and largely satisfied, though I would treat any store rating as a rough signal rather than a guarantee of how the app behaves on your own device.

What you can watch without an account

You can start watching right after installing the app, without signing in. The developer lists a large on-demand library of full episodes across many series, telenovelas and shows, covering genres such as narco dramas, romance, comedy, drama and biographical stories, plus Mexican and Colombian novelas.

The named titles give a good sense of the depth. On the current side there are Telemundo originals like El Señor de los Cielos, Sin Senos Sí Hay Paraíso, Señora Acero, El Chema and La Doña. The classics include Yo Soy Betty la Fea, Pasión de Gavilanes, Victoria, Pasión Prohibida, El Cuerpo del Deseo and Tierra de Reyes. Talk, news and event programming is represented too, with Caso Cerrado, Al Rojo Vivo, Suelta La Sopa, Exatlón USA, Miss Universe and the Billboard Latin Music Awards and Latin AMAs.

For anyone who follows a nightly novela, the day-after rule matters most: the most recent episodes of new Telemundo shows are made available the day after they air on television. That keeps the app useful as a catch-up tool rather than an archive you dip into months later.

Live channels and the TV provider sign-in

Live television is where the app changes character. The developer says live streaming and 24/7 programming, along with the full on-demand catalog and premium content, become available when you sign in with a TV provider account. That sign-in is described as free.

Once signed in, the app also streams the NBCUniversal networks together: NBC, E!, Bravo, USA, SYFY, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Universal Kids, Universo and Telemundo itself. Each network gets its own page highlighting its series, and the catalog mixes recent shows with older favorites. Browsing can be filtered by network and by genre, which is the sensible way to handle a library this size.

This is the part of the app I would think about before installing. Without a provider sign-in you get a substantial on-demand library, but the live channels and the premium tier sit behind that account.

Profiles, credits and casting

A separate layer is the NBCUniversal profile, which you can create with Facebook, Google or an email address. It does two useful things: it saves your favorite shows across the family of NBCUniversal apps, and it remembers where you stopped so you can resume on another device. The developer also gives new profile holders three credits to watch episodes before they sign in with a TV provider.

Casting is handled through Chromecast, so you can start an episode on your phone and send it to a television. For anyone who watches novelas on a big screen but browses on a phone, that combination of casting and cross-device resume is the most practical feature in the app.

Smaller conveniences round this out. Episodes remember your position if you cannot finish them in one sitting, and shows can be marked as favorites for quick access to the newest episodes. None of this is unusual for a streaming app, but it is the sort of housekeeping that decides whether you keep using one.

What the app asks of you

The main constraint is geographic. Use of the app is limited to the United States and its territories, over 4G, LTE, 5G or Wi-Fi. Streaming over a mobile network may add data charges on top of whatever your plan includes.

The second constraint is the account structure. Live channels and premium titles require signing in through a TV provider. The app is free to download and does not offer in-app purchases, but it does contain advertising, so a free viewing session is not an uninterrupted one.

Nielsen software is built in, feeding TV ratings and similar market research. That is common in this category, and the developer links to its privacy pages for anyone who wants the details before installing.

Who the catalog is built for

The clearest fit is a Spanish-speaking viewer in the US who already pays for television service and wants Telemundo and the NBCUniversal channels available on a phone, tablet or cast to a TV. For that person, the app is essentially a second screen for a subscription they already have, with the day-after episodes and the live channels doing most of the work.

A second group will get real value from the no-sign-in side: people who follow one or two novelas and want full episodes of current or classic titles. The catalog is deep enough to keep that kind of viewer busy, and the profile options show what a TV provider sign-in adds.

The app is built around a specific language and a specific set of networks, and that focus is its strength rather than a shortcoming. Someone looking for a general-purpose streaming service with a wide range of international content will find this one much narrower, while someone who wants exactly this programming will find it hard to beat on convenience.

A focused streaming app that earns a place on the home screen

I would install this app if Telemundo or the NBCUniversal networks are already part of your viewing routine. The combination of full episodes without a sign-in, day-after availability of current shows, live channels through a TV provider, Chromecast support and cross-device resume covers the practical needs of a regular viewer.

The caveats are worth repeating once: it works in the US and its territories, live and premium content depend on a TV provider account, and the app carries ads. If those conditions match your situation, this is an easy recommendation; the depth of the novela catalog and the classic titles alone justify the space it takes up.

For everyone else, the decision comes down to whether this particular catalog is what you watch. It is a well-established app with a large, satisfied audience, and it does one job with considerable thoroughness.

What's new in version 9.32.0

• Bug fixes, performance enhancements, and minor design updates