• by Wayne Friedman , February 15, 2024

Although U.S. advertising revenue at Spanish-language TV-media company TelevisaUnivision slipped 5% in the fourth quarter to $467.2 million, core ad revenue -- excluding political and advocacy advertising and radio station comparison results -- rose 5%.

For all of 2023, advertising slipped 1% to $1.8 billion.

The company closed a deal to sell 18 radio stations in January of 2023.

U.S. subscription and licensing revenue sank 28% for the fourth-quarter period (to $328.5 million) and 4% for the year ($1.3 billion).

Better advertising revenues news came from the company’s Mexico operations -- up 10% for the quarter (to $392.8 million) and 18% for the year ($1.2 billion).

The company says total direct-to-consumer revenue (subscription/advertising) from its ViX streaming platform “exceeded $700 million”. ViX ended the year with more than seven million subscribers. For its free ad-supported ViX option the company would only say that monthly average users (MAUs) grew.

When looking at its entire U.S. and Mexico operations, revenue was down 7% for the quarter to $1.36 billion but 5% higher ($4.9 billion). Taking out World Cup revenue and U.S. midterm political spend in 2022, revenue grew 9%.

For the full year, total advertising revenue grew 6% (to $2.98 billion). For the fourth quarter, total advertising was up 1% ($860 million).