Spanish-language giant Televisa Univision said third-quarter profits fell as the company continued efforts to streamline its operations, and a drop in linear advertising outweighed new gains from efforts to attract advertisers to streaming.
The company said net income fell to $90.5 million, compared with $180.9 million in the year-ago period, when TelevisaUnivision profited from the sale of a portfolio of towers that were not core to its business. Revenues decreased 3% to $1.27 billion from just over $1.3 billion in the same period last year.
“Our third quarter results demonstrate the disciplined execution of our reimagined content strategy and the continued momentum of our ViX streaming service,” CEO Daniel Alegre said in a prepared statement.
TelevisaUnivision said advertising revenue fell 6% to $755 million in the quarter, citing a decline in linear viewership for its media properties. Subscription and license revenue increased 3% to $493 million, driven in part by consumer interest in ViX in the US.
TelevisaUnivision is working to strengthen its balance sheet after Alegre took over control of TelevisaUnivision from Wade Davis. Wade Davis, the former CFO of Viacom, orchestrated the acquisition of Univision in 2020 before merging it with Mexico’s Grupo Televisa in 2022, giving him the CEO job. Allegret was president and chief operating officer of Activision Blizzard, which Microsoft acquired for $69 billion. Mr. Davis will continue to serve as Vice Chairman of Televisa Univision. Since Alegre joined the company last year, TelevisaUnivision has been working to streamline its operations, which were previously fragmented by geographic region. The company owns media assets in both the United States and Mexico.
