Univision Rebounds With 37 Percent Revenue Jump

Spanish-language media giant Univision has been making a lot of changes since an ownership reorganization last year and grew core advertising 37% in the third quarter to $356 million, recovering from an upfront last year that CEO Wade Davis candidly says “was one of the worst in the company’s history,” according to TV Newscheck.

Univision reports that radio revenue rose 38.9% to $66.4 million in third quarter 2021, compared to $47.8 million for the same prior period. The return of advertisers and live events resulted in a 37.4% increase in ad revenue for the radio segment to $63.9 million, compared to $46.5 million one year ago. Total ad revenues at the Spanish-language media giant grew 20.3% year-over-year and were up 10.8% over pre-COVID 2019 levels.

Since the beginning of this year, Univision has hired more than 500 people, not only beefing up ad sales, but also adding functions that hadn’t previously existed, such as product design and development, next-generation data and analytics, and engineering.

The payoff? Davis points to a 17% improvement in ratings, with Univision’s networks now claiming 64% of Spanish-language viewership and 6.9% of total market — the highest ever.

He had something to report that we haven’t heard on any English-language TV company’s call this quarter.

Univision put in place a Washington, D.C.-based political ad sales operation for the 2020 election and increased political ad revenues by more than triple the 2016 election. That team is now expected to produce big results in the 2022 mid-terms.

“Historically, Univision’s gotten nowhere near its fair share of political advertising,” Davis noted.

“We’ve all read about the kind of tidal wave coming in political spend coming into the market. Obviously, our ability to perform is a function of the states we’re in and the states that have contentious races. And those line up well for us this year — we expect aggressive spending in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona. And the last thing I would say, with the Census data coming out, with Hispanic political affiliations being a little more fluid, it opens the door to spending from both parties,” the CEO said of next year’s campaigns.

Davis reported that all needed regulatory approvals have been obtained in Mexico for the pending merger of Univision with Televisa, but not yet in the U.S., although no issues have been raised. Rather than a fourth quarter closing, the companies are now looking to close early in the first quarter of 2022.