Miami’s FlixLatino proves there’s more to streaming than subtitles

When Narcos Mexico went mainstream, a funny thing happened: Suddenly everyone wanted in on Spanish-language TV. But before the big streamers caught on, FlixLatino was already there, quietly building a digital home for high-quality films and series produced across Latin America and Spain.

“I think we’ve created a community and a good place to watch this kind of content,” Luis Guillermo Villanueva, COO of SOMOS Next, the company behind FlixLatino, told Refresh Miami. “At one point, actors like Javier Bardem and Pedro Pascal would only have been found on services like ours. Now they’re everywhere, but that just shows how far we’ve come.”

Villanueva [pictured above] has helped steer FlixLatino from its humble beginnings as a YouTube channel into one of the few independent Hispanic streaming platforms that has actually survived the past decade. Today, the Miami-based company offers more than 4,000 hours of content, from theatrical films and true-crime series to kids’ programming and “super series” with the kind of edge and grit that travels well beyond language barriers. For $4.99 a month, subscribers can stream it all, ad-free, or explore its growing library of free ad-supported (FAST) channels.

The company started 10 years ago but has managed to sustain around 30% year-over-year growth, expanding both its catalog and its reach. Recent integrations with Roku, Prime Video Channels, Claro Puerto Rico, and Vizio have helped FlixLatino meet viewers wherever they already stream. 

“Our goal is simple,” Villanueva said. “Facilitate access to high-quality content for the Latino audience in the U.S., wherever they are.”

That “wherever” now includes both B2C subscribers and B2B partnerships, an agnostic model that keeps the company flexible. 

“We don’t mind if the user comes through our own app or through a partner platform,” Villanueva said. “Both work for us.”

SOMOS Next has built its own proprietary streaming technology, but Villanueva admits it wasn’t always smooth sailing. 

“It’s had a lot of roadblocks, a lot of headaches,” he said, laughing. “But here we are ten years later. Those challenges helped us evolve and incorporate best practices into what we do today.”

That evolution includes modern touches like a full redesign of the interface, support for live channels, and a better viewing experience across devices. “We learned that users don’t want to re-learn how to use every new platform,” he said. “They want familiarity, just like when you go to the supermarket, you know where your aisle is.”

If the platform’s growth story sounds familiar to anyone watching Miami’s broader tech scene, that’s no coincidence. Villanueva moved from Venezuela to the U.S. nearly 30 years ago and chose to build his company and his team in Miami, long before the city became synonymous with startups. 

“We could have built our team elsewhere, in a cheaper market,” he said. “But Miami is our home. It’s the capital of this U.S. Hispanic movement.”

He sees the city as uniquely positioned to bridge cultures and tell stories that reflect a shared identity. “In Latin America, we don’t call ourselves Latinos,” he said. “We’re Venezuelan, Mexican, Colombian. But here in the U.S., we’re all under one banner. We’re all trying to improve life, help each other, and share what we create.”

That sense of community is what continues to drive SOMOS Next, and what makes FlixLatino something more than just another streaming service. It’s a cultural project built in Miami, for Miami and beyond. And as Villanueva put it, they’re nowhere near done. 

“We feel good about what we’ve created,” he said. “But we’re still building, still producing, still delivering more. The story’s not over yet.”