MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Grupo Televisa, Mexico’s largest broadcaster, reported on Thursday a 77.3% drop in net profit in the third quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.
The company posted third-quarter net profit of 760.6 million pesos ($36.8 million) compared with 3.350 billion pesos in the same period last year, falling short of the Barclays estimate of 933 million pesos.
Televisa’s revenue grew 9.1% to 26.128 billion pesos, from 23.943 billion pesos in the year-earlier period. That was above a Barclays prediction of 24.5 billion pesos.
Televisa and leading U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster Univision announced in April they would merge content through the creation of a new Spanish language media company https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/televisa-univision-venture-aims-global-spanish-streaming-service-2021-04-14, in which Televisa would be the largest shareholder. The new firm, called Televisa Univision, will launch a global streaming platform with content from both.
Mexico’s telecommunications regulator, IFT, last month authorized the tie-up. The transaction is expected to close this year, Televisa said.
In September, Televisa said the sale of its 40% stake in Ocesa Entertainment to U.S. firm Live Nation would move forward https://www.reuters.com/article/ocesa-livenation/refile-update-1-live-nation-resumes-stalled-acquisition-of-mexican-entertainment-firm-ocesa-idUSL1N2QF0XD?enowpopup, a move that would support Televisa’s deleveraging efforts, according to S&P Global Ratings.
($1= 20.642 pesos at end-September)
(Reporting by Noe Torres and Anthony Esposito in Mexico City; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon and Matthew Lewis)
