The Washington Post reports the layoffs, along with a planned restructuring, “are in response to difficult times, challenging times,” Isaac Lee, Univision’s digital, entertainment and news chief, told The Washington Post in his first public comments on the moves. “We need to position ourselves for the future.”
Univision had a third-quarter net loss of $30.5 million on total revenue of $735 million, down 8 percent.
As its traditional audience of Latino television watchers becomes older or cuts the cord, the company will also continue to chase what it sees as its savior: the English-language, digital, millennial audience.
Univision made a surprising move in that direction last summer when it paid $135 million for the media companies associated with Gawker, the Manhattan-based media gossip site. Gawker was forced to file for bankruptcy as a result of a crippling $140 million jury award in the Hulk Hogan sex tape suit. The suit was financed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, in retribution for Gawker’s outing of him as gay in 2007.
Meanwhile, Univision’s private equity backers and its Mexican programming partner just ran into a roadblock, according to The NY Post.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation strongly discouraged the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday from making major decisions until the Trump administration is in place.
Univision, expected to go public in the coming months, had asked the FCC for permission for Mexico-based Televisa, from which it buys telenovelas, to increase its stake in the Spanish-language network to 40 percent from 10 percent.
Current rules restrict foreign ownership of US television networks.
For several reasons, a Trump administration is expected to give the request a much tougher review.
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