• by Wayne Friedman , November 4, 2021

Univision Communications not only witnessed strong advertising revenue in the third quarter versus the same period the year before -- 33% higher -- but also strong results versus 2019, in a pre-pandemic third-quarter period.

For the third quarter of 2021, advertising revenue came in at $442.7 million versus $334.1 million in the third quarter of 2020 -- a pandemic-disrupted period where virtually all media advertising witnessed sharp declines.

In addition, the most recent quarterly results for the Spanish-language TV media company were also 16% higher than levels reached in the third quarter 2019, where it was $382.8 million.

Core advertising -- sans political advertising -- in the most recent period was up 37% to $412.1 million.

Looking at specific business units, Univision’s Media Networks -- its TV networks and stations -- had a 19% gain to $688.3 million. Subscription revenues inched up 4% to $278.0 million.

Radio revenues grew 39% to $66.4 million, with radio advertising revenues up 37% to $63.9 million.

Overall, Univision revenue grew 20.3% to $754.7 million, with net income up 8.4% to $33.5 million.

The company noted that it adopted a pushdown accounting approach since May 18 -- the date when the company had its reorganization.

The approach is where assets and liabilities of a target/acquired company are updated to reflect the purchase cost rather than the historical cost.

In spring, Univision and Televisa agreed to a $4.8 billion deal -- adding more media, content production and operations to Univision.