• by Wayne Friedman , June 13, 2014

The dominant Spanish-language TV network group Univision Communications has been talking to CBS and Time Warner about a possible acquisition of the company, according to a report.

The privately owned Univision has been worried about possible recent pay TV provider consolidation deals -- including Comcast buying Time Warner and AT&T buying DirecTV. The Wall Street Journal first reported the story. A group of investors, including billionaire Haim Saban, bought Univision in 2007 for $13.7 billion.

Projections are that Univision is looking to gain $20 billion or more from a possible deal. Back in April, during an earnings phone call, CEO of Univision Communications Randy Falco was concerned that Comcast still did not distribute Univision’s sports network, Univision Deportes, the network that is airing the big World Cup soccer event that has just begun in Brazil.

Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which houses Univision TV network competitor Telemundo. In addition, Univision has seen its share of troubles on the viewership front. For the TV season just completed, Univision was down 23% to a 1.2 Nielsen rating among 18-49 viewers. For the season overall, Univision pulled in 3 million prime-time viewers.

For the most recent week ending June 8, Univision was at 2.6 million overall viewers to Telemundo’s 1.5 million. Univision posted a 1.0 rating among 18-49 viewers (1.3 million) to Telemundo’s 0.6 rating (780,000).