Univision and Disney In Talks For An English-Language News Channel The Walt Disney Company may join Univision, the dominant Spanish-language broadcaster in the United States, in starting an English-language cable news channel this year, people with knowledge of the talks between the companies said on Monday. These people described the talks as advanced, though no announcement appeared to be imminent. The Wall Street Journal first reported the talks on Monday. The new channel could combine the resources of Disney's ABC News and Univision's news division to rival established news entities like Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNN. It would be aimed at English-speaking Hispanics in the United States, whose numbers are growing. "This would go head-to-head with CNN," said a person with knowledge of the talks who, along with others involved, spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. A new channel in partnership with Univision might allow ABC News to trim some of the news-gathering costs it incurs and to share in the subscriber fees that cable channels gobble up. For some of the same reasons, ABC News has flirted in the past with a partnership with Bloomberg TV. But first, the companies would have to gain carriage from cable and satellite distributors that are reluctant to add more channels. Univision would rely on Disney's negotiating heft to get the carriage agreements, one of the people with knowledge of the talks said. Disney also owns ESPN, ABC Family and other channels. ABC News has halfheartedly tried creating its own cable news channel more than once before, but this new effort comes at a time when the news division, under Ben Sherwood, who became its president about a year ago, seems eager to strike deals. Last summer, ABC announced a Web partnership with Yahoo. Univision, which is owned by a consortium of partners, including the Saban Capital Group and TPG Capital, has shown interest lately in moving into English-language programming, and it recently added English-language subtitles to its prime-time telenovelas. Univision has been speaking to potential partners for an English-language news channel for some time, two other people with knowledge of the talks said. The private equity firm Providence Equity Partners is involved in the current talks with Disney. An advantage of an English-language news channel is that advertisers who want to reach Hispanics do not need to have a separate Spanish-language advertisement. In an apparently separate initiative that was announced last year, Univision is also preparing to introduce a Spanish-language news channel. Bilingual Hispanics, defined as speaking English more than Spanish or both languages equally, account for 82 percent of the total United States Hispanic population, according to a report released last year by Scarborough Research, a consumer research firm.