TelevisaUnivision: First-Party Data Graph Grows, Under-Representation Issues Remain

Spanish-language TV/media company TelevisaUnivision can offer more reach to marketers who say linear TV no longer helps them on its own.

But this does not necessarily mean focusing marketers primarily on buying its new premium video streaming platform, ViX. Advertisers can buy linear TV on Univision only to get more reach.

“Marketers are oversaturated in English-language TV,” Donna Speciale, president of advertising sales and marketing for TelevisaUnivision, told Television News Daily in a pre-upfront event interview. “I don't push linear TV dollars to ViX. It is additive.”

TelevisaUnivision now has more than 30 million monthly users globally for its ViX streaming platform, and 63% of users are incremental to its linear TV network. Pierluigi Gazzolo, chief executive officer of ViX, adds that 80% of consumption on ViX is content no one has.

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Speciale adds: “We are at a tipping point. The industry is embracing this power with the audience.”

TelevisaUnivision claims it delivers 60% of all Spanish-language viewing. The Univision TV network was first among Hispanics for 30 years.

Evidence of this, Speciale says, comes with advertisers: “Our linear TV business is still really strong. We had a very good first quarter. We are seeing the money.” Still, she says, “it's not as robust as it was last year.”

Much of the discussion heading into this upfront ad-sales period is focused on measurement for all TV networks. This has long been an issue among many Spanish-language TV networks that felt Nielsen's data underrepresented their audience.

Speciale now has more concrete data about that disparity -- that Spanish-language TV consumers are 26% underrepresented, according to the latest results from Nielsen.

Helping solve this issue is TelevisaUnivision’s two-year-old first-party household graph data, which 150 clients are now using, she says. Overall, the company has added 110 new brands since a year ago.

While Univision's Speciale has worked with VideoAmp when it comes to new measurement and currency, she says it will work with any media agency holding company.

She believes industry groups such as the Joint Industry Committee (JIC) that focus on measurement and currency have been long needed.

But this has limits. “I won't do business with data that is inaccurate," Speciale says. "That was why JIC was formed.”

And when it comes to the bigger picture, she believes Nielsen with its upcoming Nielsen One cross-measurement platform is on track in its plan to add Big Data to its panel data -- something that will help resolve many issues. “You can’t get to cross platform measurement without Big Data.”

Changing over to Nielsen One from the existing Nielsen Television Index (NTI) system won't be much of an issue, she says. This is especially important for long-time TV advertisers who want to protect their current base price CPM structure they have with TV networks.

In 2007-2008, when the industry gradually shifted to average minute commercial TV ratings from program TV ratings, Speciale says the TV seller and buyer sides were able to compare and adjust to the new data set in a relatively easy six-month period.>

Among its new content/programming offerings for the new TV season, TelevisaUnivision, in a deal with the NFL and CBS, next season will air its first NFL game ever in Spanish -- the Super Bowl -- on February 11, 2024.

Later that year, the company’s TUDN and TelevisaUnivision platforms will air the 48th edition of Copa America football/soccer event -- which will be hosted in the U.S. for the second time in history -- June 14 to July 14, 2024.

1 comment about "TelevisaUnivision: First-Party Data Graph Grows, Under-Representation Issues Remain".
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  1. John Grono from GAP Research, May 20, 2023 at 9:44 a.m.

    Does anyone know whether the weightings that Nielsen (like all panel services do) use to project to the audience universe include ethnicity?

    If the panel count is down by 26% but their viewing is up-weighted by 35% when projected, then the reported projected overall usage would be within standard statistical limits.

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