In 2000, WHOT obtained the rights to Atlanta Hawks basketball games. USA then planned to expand the independent format on its remaining stations; however, due to financial problems, the plans were eventually scrapped and USA placed its group of stations up for sale. Disney/ABC were the leaders in their bid, which would have created a partnership for Cox-owned ABC affiliate WSB-TV, but Univision outbid its competition in a close race. In markets which already had Univision affiliates, the newly acquired stations became affiliates of TeleFutura, a new network started by Univision. However, WHOT was Univision's only station in Atlanta (which had a relatively low, but growing, Spanish-speaking population). As such, the station changed its call sign to WUVG (for Univision Georgia) in November 2001 and became Atlanta's Univision affiliate on January 14, 2002.