Sports Boost TelevisaUnivision in $1B Quarter

Televisa and Univision, who closed the $4.8 billion merger of their content businesses in January, recorded $1 billion in Q1 revenue on a pro forma basis — up from $896 million the year prior — in their first earnings report as TelevisaUnivision. 

The separate entities had strong ties before they became the largest Spanish-language media company in the world, merging their sports divisions in 2019. 

Operating expenses for the quarter grew 16% year-over-year to $608 million due to investments across the company, including its streaming business and increases in sports, entertainment, and news programming costs. Advertising revenue increased 12% to $569 million, while subscription and licensing revenue jumped 14.3% to $407 million.

TelevisaUnivision made a couple of other milestones during the quarter.

• TelevisaUnivision was the No. 2-rated network on all of TV in the U.S. for the first time ever in February.
• It launched its new streaming service, ViX AVOD, in the U.S., Mexico, and most of Spanish-speaking Latin America, with plans to launch a premium subscription platform later this year.

Sports Sell

The self-proclaimed “Home of Soccer” continues to score with sports — TUDN is the No. 1 Spanish-language sports network in the U.S. and Mexico.

In roughly the last year, Televisa entered a $560 million, eight-year deal with La Liga, while Univision signed a five-year deal with Combate Americas. Univision already had coverage of Copa America, Copa MX, and Liga MX, as well as partnerships with NFL and MLB teams.