• by Wayne Friedman , February 27, 2020

Although fourth-quarter Univision Communications revenue inched up 1%, longer-term, full-year results show overall no revenue growth for the second year in a row.

In 2019, revenue for the privately held Spanish-language content company was $2.69 billion -- down slightly from $2.71 billion in 2018, and lower than its 2017 revenue of $2.94 billion. Net income for 2019 was up $287 million from $800,000.

Fourth-quarter 2019 revenue was at $692.9 million versus $688.5 million in the same quarterly period in 2018.

Univision media networks’ advertising revenue inched up 1% to $340.3 million.

Core advertising -- excluding its strong 2018 mid-term election results from political advertising -- grew 6% to $334.0 million.

Univision says there were increases in TV ratings, as well as pricing and volume of advertising and hikes in digital media advertising. At the same time, there were decreases in local TV advertising spending.

Digital media core advertising spending was up 32%, the company says.

Media Networks ‘subscriber fee, content licensing and other revenue -- grew 2% to $286.5 million.

Univision’s radio revenue was down 8% to $66.1 million due to declines in advertising spending in the retail, financial and automotive categories. Food marketing and other ad segments were higher.

On Tuesday, Univision announced two investment companies -- Searchlight and ForgeLight -- will purchase a majority 64% ownership in the company. Wade Davis, former Viacom chief financial officer, is founder of ForgeLight. Mexican TV company Televisa will retain a 36% stake in Univision. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Two years ago, Univision explored the idea of an initial public offering, then withdrew citing marketing conditions. 

Univision had been a publicly traded company for years, then went private in 2007.