Univision Q3 Revenues Drop, Dish Carriage Dispute Big Factor

Hit with the impact of its long Dish Network dispute, strong World Cup TV competition and lower ratings, Univision Communications revenues sharply fell more than 17% in its most recent reporting period.

Third-quarter revenue for the Spanish-language network group was $628.2 million, with core revenue -- excluding political advertising and content licensing revenue -- sinking 8.2% to $648.9 million.

Advertising revenue fell 17% overall to $378.7 million, while non-advertising revenue dropped 18% to $249.5 million. Net income from continuing operations sank dramatically to $12.4 million from $109.6 million.

Digital advertising revenue was 17% lower to $16.8 million.

High-rated FIFA World Cup TV coverage during the summer ran Fox TV networks and Telemundo, which had the Spanish-language rights to the event. A year ago, when Univision had the Gold Cup soccer tournament, revenue hit $26.7 million.

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A major factor in the drop, however, is the ongoing carriage battle with satellite TV programmer Dish Network.

Dish dropped Univision's lifestyle cable networks in April and its Univision broadcast network in June. On Tuesday, Univision said Dish decided not to renew its carriage agreement for Univision Deportes Network, the cable sports network.

Dish said it offered to extend its Univision existing agreement, with continued negotiations. Overall, Dish has more than 10 million subscribers.

In March, Univision Holdings scrapped plans for an IPO, due to “prevailing market conditions.”

 

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