Univision’s new management reported higher first quarter profits as cost controls cut expenses more than revenue fell.
An investor group led by former Viacom executive Wade Davis, acquired control of Univision in December.
Net income jumped to $66 million from $11.7 million a year ago, when the company took a $75.1 million non-cash impairment charge, severance charges of $4.2 million and other expenses of $11.2 million.
Read Also: Univision and Televisa Team Up To Form Spanish-Language Media Giant
Revenue fell 4% to $633.7 million from $660.4 million a year ago.
Core ad revenue rose 7% in the quarter, led by double-digit growth from national advertising.
Revenue for Univision’s media network segment dropped 3% to $590.3 million. Ad revenue rose 7% to $300.4 million. Core ad revenue, excluding political was up 11%. The company said ad revenue rose because of new brand activations, growth in low volume accounts and improvements in the auto, healthcare and beverage sectors, which are recovering from COVID.
Read Also: Univision Launches Ad-Supported Streaming Service, PrendeTV
Subscriber revenue was down 6% to $264.3 million.
“Our quarterly results demonstrate that Univision’s transformation is continuing to gain momentum,” said Wade Davis, CEO of Univision.
“This quarter we took a number of important actions to drive our strategy forward including, most notably, the announcement of our historic combination with Televisa’s content and media assets,” Davis said. “We also successfully launched PrendeTV, our free ad-supported streaming platform, which is now the leading Spanish Language entertainment app on Google, Apple and Roku platforms in just slightly more than a month since its launch.”
