• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

U.S. advertising sank 12% at TelevisaUnivision to $309.9 million in the first quarter of 2026, mostly due to continued linear TV network declines.

But the Spanish-language media company witnessed continued direct-to-consumer (D2C) streaming advertising growth.

Although the company did not provide specific details, it touted that its streaming platform ViX continued to see an overall increase -- especially its premium option. Overall subscription and licensing revenue was up 12% to $385 million, with a 28% gain to $120 million in Mexico.

Overall advertising revenue in Mexico grew 13% to $235.7 million. Company-wide revenues were up 5% to $1.08 billion, with operating income slipping 6% to $323.3 million.

U.S. revenue overall was flat to $708 million, with revenue up 17% to $367 million.

For the year overall, analysts expect strong positive results for the U.S. Spanish-language network/media group, with revenues expected to climb 5% to 6% for the year, driven by major sporting events including the FIFA World Cup (soccer) as well as higher political advertising around the midterm elections later this year.

In the previous fourth quarter, U.S. advertising was down 11% to $423 million, with overall advertising (including Mexico) flat year-over-year, at $856 million.

The decline in the U.S. was partly due to comparisons to the previous year, which had strong political advertising around the Presidential election.

In comparison to other TV network-based companies in the first quarter of 2026, Comcast (NBCUniversal) core advertising -- without the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics -- was up 4.7% to $1.5 billion. Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery have yet to release their first-quarter revenue and earnings results.

Industry-wide advertising estimates from Marketing Architects project that the national linear TV marketplace will sink 3.9% this year to $48 billion with streaming/connected TV advertising up 13.6% to $36.9 billion.