Televisa-Univision wedding announces new Mexican opponent in the war

For the giants of Disney, Amazon Prime and Netflix, countries like Mexico with a population of 126m – including 60p Hispanics in the US, and a 600m Latino market worldwide – represent an opportunity for positive growth.

Appropriately, Who Killed Sarah? belonged to Netflix the most famous non-English speaking show in the US for the first month since its launch in March and one of its biggest impact on the river, assuring Latin manufacturers that there is a huge global market for Spanish languages.

It is a challenge for traditional radio producers that dramatically change the digital age.

Mid-April – Netflix before releasing registering quarterly frustrations statistics in Latin America, the fastest-growing region – Mexico’s top broadcaster Televisa and Univision $ 4.8bn plus plus.

Encouraged by a $ 1bn investment from Japan’s SoftBank, it wants to launch a search operation next year targeting the global Spanish language market.

The project to be mentioned will face stiff competition: Netflix entered Latin America a decade ago, while two years ago it came to the forefront of the Amazon Prime and Disney Plus video. WarnerMedia is launching its HBO Max platform in the region this month.

But Emilio Azcárraga, chairman of Televisa, is confident he will release. “Perhaps Univision or Televisa alone would not be able to have the scales to make that money to support production and distribution,” he said. “All of us, we have opportunities, growth and money.”

He cites the group’s recent experience with the satellite TV service in the 1990’s, in an effort to counter DirecTV. “A lot of people say we’re crazy – what can we do to compete?” adauza Financial Times. “[But now] in the area where we work, DirecTV does not exist. ”

However, it is a long-term plan for Televisa that has a library of thousands of hours of the most wonderful soap called TV soaps, movies and games, but do not know much about edgier demonstrations or changes that are part of what the audience wants to see the way the advertisers feel.

Even Disney Plus shouldn’t be profitable until 2023 when Netflix just said in January that it expects its outflow of funds to deal with this year, after many years I put a lot of money on it.

Few local offices have managed to strengthen themselves against major players around the world. Nent, a Stockholm-based group, has managed to do this by increasing production the first Nordic drama.

But encouragingly for this new project, the Spanish language and especially Mexican production are growing in an important market in the US, according to data provider Parrot Analytics.

The Televisa-Univision project will utilize Televisa’s design capabilities and attempt to utilize its major backlinks. But Televisa spends $ 1bn a year on average compared to Netflix’s $ 17bn and Azcárraga has not said how much it will spend in the future.

“The reality is that Televisa can’t compete with Netflix’s releases,” said researcher Gilberto García at Barclays.

In addition, some of what Televisa-Univision is currently doing seems to be unwarranted by viewers. “Since 2015, Univision’s audience has fallen more than 50 percent,” García said.

Alejandro Rojas, director of analytics in Parrot Analytics, said it was important for Televisa to change its mindset in order to create more content in order to analyze customer needs. “It’s a different concept from TV,” he said.

Azcárraga acknowledged that people want more than just telenovelas. “Love always sells [but] there are things we should do differently. . . we are not empty. ”

They see Televisa-Univision as a window shop for independent producers who want to make Latin market products and showcase the success of Televisa and the media, but did not specify where they want to look as the work progresses with more Critics like Disney.

“It’s like a handball competition,” Rojas said. “Everyone has to do more.” In fact, Netflix is ​​planning a new office in Colombia later this year and is also showcasing 30 new movies, videos, recordings and other programs from 2021-22. I bet on new Latin designs as a show of real romance Extreme Heat Care it’s a youth drama Keep Z control of regional growth, according to Ampere Analysis.

But even giant promotions are declining in Latin America in a business where scales are everything.

Netflix subscriptions in the area went up less than 1 percent in the first quarter compared to the end of last year. Total enrollment in Latin America rose by 19% last year, following a 20% annual increase and 32% in 2018.

“What the epidemic has shown is that people are bringing in their paid membership – people who were probably enrolled in 2021 enrolled earlier, which is why we are seeing a decline now compared to the increase in 2020,” said Rahul Patel in Ampere Analysis. .

Azcárraga said there was still a decision to be made on whether registration or advertising was being supported.

Sales of the first quarter of Televisa increased by 28% compared to the same period last year while earnings increased by 10% and 200,000 subscribers were added. Univision’s pay-per-view TV service, PrendeTV, launched in March by 900,000 subscribers in the first month and big advertising revenue increased by 7% in the first quarter.

Marcelo Claure, chief executive of global firm SoftBank, told experts that the joint venture “could be rewarded in the same way as the market that provided Disney Plus, which now sells 35 times ebitda”.

Televisa funds have been in vain for four years but all funds have been exhausted. Researchers say it sells right now 6-7 times.

“Viewing statistics [at Televisa] they are much better off and the situation is getting worse, “says Soomit Datta, a researcher at New Street Research.” But they can live or die according to what they have. ”