TelevisaUnivision revealed Univision Communications fourth-quarter 2021 financial results on Wednesday, saying the company held its ad sales steady compared to the prior year and increased its subscription revenue 15% versus Q4 2020.
Per the privately owned company, ad sales were up 0.1% in the three-month period ended Dec. 31, at $435.2 million versus $434.8 million. Core advertising revenue, which is adjusted for political and advocacy ads, rose 12% to $407 million compared to $363 million in Q4 2020. For the full year, Univision ad sales were up 22%, per TelevisaUnivision.
Meanwhile, subscription fee revenue was up 15% ($294.5 million vs. $255.1 million).
Overall, Univision revenue increased 4.1% over fourth-quarter 2020 results, per its newly merged parent company.
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“2021 was a remarkable year for Univision in which we turned around both revenue and EBITDA after more than 5 years of declines,” Univision CEO Wade Davis said in a prepared statement accompanying the financials. “Our business is firing on all cylinders across the board. Ratings were up, defying the trend plaguing all other companies in the industry. Advertising revenue grew 22% sequentially, after a presidential election year. Subscription revenue accelerated and most recently grew 15% in the fourth quarter. And, of course, last week we announced our upcoming, game-changing launch of ViX.”
Davis continued: “In the face of all this progress, it is important to remember that the real transformation will be driven by our recently closed merger and the creation of our new company, TelevisaUnivision. The combination of the two companies creates a fundamentally more complete and higher growth business model. On a combined basis preliminary 2021 pro forma revenue was $4.2 billion growing 15% with EBITDA of $1.6 billion growing 11% over prior year, which clearly illustrates that the combination of the Mexican business has significantly enhanced overall performance.”
In January, Grupo Televisa, S.A.B and Univision Holdings II, Inc. completed the long-awaited merger between Televisa’s media content and production assets and Univision. The new company, which is named TelevisaUnivision, is promoted as a Spanish-language media and content powerhouse that will reach 100 million Spanish speakers across the U.S. and Mexico.
TelevisaUnivision comprises intellectual property from Televisa’s four broadcast channels, 27 pay-TV channels, Videocine movie studio and Blim TV SVOD platform, as well as Univision and UniMás’ broadcast networks, nine Spanish-language cable networks, 59 TV stations and 57 radio stations. Last week, the company announced ViX as the name encompassing both of its free, ad-supported streaming services — which launched last year in the U.S. as PrendeTV — as well as a forthcoming subscription offering, to be called ViX Plus.
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