TelevisaUnivision US advertising falls 29% as Mexico gains from World Cup
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TelevisaUnivision reported mixed second-quarter results, with the absence of Spanish-language World Cup rights in the US contributing to a sharp fall in advertising there, while World Cup coverage in Mexico lifted performance strongly. The figures underline the importance of major football rights to the broadcaster’s advertising and streaming strategy, as it faces competition from Telemundo in the US market.
US advertising revenue fell 29%, contributing to an 11% decline in US revenue to $722 million; management expects a similar trend in the third quarter, with midterm-election advertising potentially helping later in the year. In Mexico, advertising revenue rose 23% to $353 million and total Mexico revenue increased 53%, while company-wide revenue grew 10% to $1.3 billion; operating income fell to $224 million and adjusted OIBDA to $388 million.
- US advertising weakened as Telemundo held World Cup rights.
- Mexico’s World Cup coverage drove strong revenue growth.
- Total revenue rose, but profit measures declined.
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TelevisaUnivision is the largest Spanish-language media company in the Americas, formed from the 2022 merger of Mexico's Televisa and the US network Univision. It operates across two main markets: the United States, where it competes for Hispanic audiences with rivals like NBCUniversal's Telemundo, and Mexico, where it runs traditional television alongside its streaming service, ViX.
Football's men's World Cup is one of the biggest draws for advertisers and viewers in Spanish-language media, and broadcasters pay heavily for the rights to show it in different countries. For this tournament, those rights are split: Telemundo holds the Spanish-language rights in the United States, while TelevisaUnivision holds them in Mexico, meaning the same event can help one company's results while hurting the other's in different markets.
This split matters because it shows how dependent large media companies have become on major sporting events to drive advertising sales and subscriptions, and how losing or winning rights in just one country can swing a company's finances even as its business elsewhere stays broadly stable.
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Originally published by The Hollywood Reporter as “TelevisaUnivision Quarterly U.S. Ad Revenue Drops 29 Percent, But World Cup Boosts Mexico Results”.