The carriage dispute, which began in June and continues, is depriving the company of subscriber fees and shrinking the size of its viewership, weakening its ad-sales business.
The closely held broadcaster said that non-advertising revenue at its media networks unit, which includes subscriber fees, was $279.6 million in the fourth quarter, down 11% from $315.7 million a year earlier. Advertising revenue in that unit fell 6.6% to $337 million.
Univision also took an impairment charge on Gizmodo Media Group, its English-language digital business, of more than $120 million in 2018.
Univision purchased many of the websites in Gizmodo Media Group, including Gizmodo and Lifehacker, for $135 million in a bankruptcy auction held in 2016. It already owned The Root, an African-American news site, and a stake in The Onion, a satirical news site. It put all of those properties up for sale in July, and the process is continuing.
“These digital brands are longstanding, well-recognized sources of news, information and entertainment in their verticals that we believe can thrive as part of a company whose focus better aligns with theirs,” Univision said in a written statement.
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