Univision Communications may never ever become a publicly traded company, but that hasn’t stopped the nation’s biggest purveyor of Spanish-language media options from releasing its quarterly earnings reports.
Univision’s Q2 results were made public early Thursday (8/9). Net income was down, but net revenue was up.
That said, Univision Radio continues to experience diminished returns, while political dollars couldn’t save Univision’s media networks from a 2.9% revenue decline.
For Univision’s AMs and FMs, total revenue fell 3.1% to $64.7 million, from $66.8 million.
For the media networks which include Univision network, UniMás and Univision’s MVPD-distributed cable networks, revenue dipped by 1.9%, to $685.1 million.
As a result, total revenue fell by 2% to $749.8 million, from $764.9 million.
Looking at adjusted core OIBDA doesn’t provide a much rosier assessment of Univision’s current financial ills. For radio, it was down 13.3%, to $15 million; for media networks, it was off 1.6%, to $294 million.
The second quarter marked the first one for newly installed CEO Vince Sadusky, who has the task of turning around a wounded ship impacted by a swiftly changing Hispanic consumer base and a strong challenge from NBCUniversal Hispanic Enterprises’ Telemundo and Universo.
Sadusky called it “an honor and privilege” to serve as Univision’s CEO. At the same time, he addressed much of what the company has faced over the last six months — and did so in a highly positive tone.
“Despite a rapidly evolving media landscape, the company has a lot to be optimistic
about and an incredibly strong foundation to build from,” he said. “While our foundation is strong, Univision has gone through a significant amount of change over the last few months. We are starting an exciting new chapter with a singular focus on our core business and mission: to inform, entertain and empower Hispanic America.”
Will that “exciting new chapter” include radio? Chatter persists that Univision Radio is for sale, at least in part.
Core advertising revenue for Univision Radio decreased 6% to $57.5 million from $61.2 million. The company cites “overall softness” in ad spending — including declines in the telecommunications, restaurant and automotive sectors and “weakness in certain local
markets.”
Could those markets be primed for a spin?
