Topic: TV Ads
Univision is as hot as its shows and telenovelas are in the U.S. Hispanic Marketspace
Univision as the Myspace.com of TV Networks
Please help me welcome Univision to the world of media mergers! We have had mergers of Viacom and DreamWorks, Disney and Pixar. The season of megamergers is not over yet. Most American networks envy the magic touch of Univision. It is one of the hottest networks with a strong stream of revenues. Knowing how hard U.S. networks are working to reach U.S. Hispanics, it would be a boon to any of them if they could manage to put a deal together to get this superb Hispanic network. By itself, Univision's stations and networks command more than 80 % of the U.S. Hispanic TV market. Now this percentage may be disputed by its archrival Telemundo which NBC Universal owns. Telemundo will openly boast the remaining 20 % or so. What is clear is that Univision is a force to reckon with. With its size and coverage of the Hispanic market, it can rake in major advertiser dollars. Major industry analysts have been able to put its market power into focus. They report that univision is the Hispanic equivalent of CBS, ABC, Clear Channel, and AOL rolled into one company.
Now that Univision is ready to go to the marketplace and looking for a deal, the public can take a deep look at its assets. Among the Univision holdings, we find that they cover 71% Television (including the Univision and TeleFutura broadcast networks with 62 television stations, and the Galavision cable network, 1% online (Univision.com is a major Hispanic portal), 18% Music (the unit records and publishes music under the Univision, Fonovisa, La Calle, Disa labels. There is no doubt that the darling of Hispanic media will give rise to a major bidding war. Hey, no matter what happens between now and the end of this war, let me have access to my world cup soccer games. Univision muscled its way to obtain an exclusive deal to broadcast World cup soccer games in Spanish. Univision should be able to draw even more viewers during the world cup games. It will be able to become attractive to advertisers. It may make an advertising dent into the 300 biggest companies that buy advertising. This TV network knows how to remain relevant to its audience. Advertisers are looking for content-rich networks that draw viewers like the U.S. triumvirate (ABC, CBS & NBC) used to do before Cable networks such as CNN, MSNBC, Fox and the Internet chipped away and gobbled up their bread and butter. Univision is the eBay of the online shopping, the Google and Yahoo of technology companies and the Myspace.com of the social networking sites. While talking about myspace.com, news corp with Rupert Murdorch is interested in taking a look at the holdings of Univision. Believe me if it is worth it, Mr. Murdoch will not hesitate to join CBS' Les Moonves and other investors to get the last deal. The hot pursuit of Univision is ongoing. By the way, Barry Diller of IAC/Interactive is also a good friend of Perenchio, the spotlight-shy and near reclusive investor who has an 11 % stake. What is clear is that Univision is maturing and needs more investments. In the meantime, the TV network will continue to serve its viewers a potpourri of variety of shows, telenovelas, sports as in soccer world cup and regional games, Latino hip hop and pop culture, a little bit of appeal and joie de vivre.
