Groupo Televisa and Univision Holdings said they completed the previously announced transaction that creates TelevisaUnivision Inc., the world’s biggest Spanish-language media and content company.
TelevisaUnivision will be led by CEO Wade Davis, the former Viacom CFO who led a group that bought Univision last year. Alfonso de Angoitia, co-CEO of Group Televisa, will be executive chairman of the board.
New investors in the company include SoftBank Latin America Fund, Google and The Raine Group.
One of the new company’s first orders of business is launching a new streaming platform this year. The streaming platform will have free and premium tiers and offer original entertainment programs sports and news.
“The close of our transaction marks a historic moment for our company and our industry,” said Davis.
“This combination will create a business without comparison in the global media landscape. Over the past year both companies have transformed themselves, reaching levels of financial performance and audience resonance that has not been seen for years. The power and momentum of the transformed core business is truly unique and will be a springboard for the upcoming launch of the preeminent Spanish-language streaming service,” Davis said. “The new trajectory of our company is supported by our new ownership group, which is well positioned to amplify the efforts of one of the best leadership teams in the world.”
The combined company will have Televisa’s four broadcast channels, 27 pay TV channels, Videocine movie studio, Blim TV subscription VOD service plus Univision's U.S. assets including the Univision and UniMas broadcast networks, nine cable networks, 59 TV stations, 57 radio stations and the PrendeTV ad-supported streaming platform launched last year.
TelevisaUnivision reaches more than 100 million Spanish speakers each day and owns the largest library of Spanish-language content and intellectual property in the world.
Content production and operations in Mexico will be led by Bernardo Gómez and Alfonso de Angoitia, co-CEOs of TelevisaUnivision Mexico, who also remain co-CEOs of Grupo Televisa.
Grupo Televisa’s news operations in Mexico will become part of a new, independent company dedicated to producing news for TelevisaUnivision’s networks in Mexico, and will be led by Emilio Azcárraga, executive chairman of the Grupo Televisa Board of Directors. ■
