TelevisaUnivision Has Best Upfront in Nearly a Decade for Volume

TelevisaUnivision is having its best upfront in terms of volume in nearly a decade.

Today, the company became the fourth publisher to finish talks, following NBCUniversal, Paramount and Fox. And in addition to TelevisaUnivision having its best volume at the upfront in almost 10 years, a record number of advertisers participated.

According to a source familiar with the matter, the Spanish-language media company “bucked industry trends for both price and volume,” helping take revenue share from the general market/English-language media and further closing the pricing gap.

The company grew revenue across all of its national platforms, including delivering growth for ViX, which is seeing “record numbers” for demand and volume. Overall, there was volume growth in the high-single digits, the company saw increased volume across its core linear business and it was able to grow overall broadcast CPMs (cost per thousand viewers reached).

According to the source, roughly 80% of advertisers who bought across the company’s linear networks also enhanced their buys for incremental reach with ViX. That’s up from 70% last year.

Sports continues to be a huge growth driver for the company, with strong demand for soccer, including the company’s Liga MX offering and the upcoming 2023 Copa America tournament. Plus, the company had strong demand for its upcoming Spanish-language Super Bowl broadcast, with “record-setting” CPMs, which were the highest ever achieved by its sports division.

Music tentpoles, including the Latin Grammys, had solid demand and pricing. There were also new highs in revenue for the company’s audience and creative capabilities, such as TelevisaUnivision’s Hispanic Household data graph, which was a key driver of audience revenue, fueling incremental volume from all major holding companies.

Regarding categories, insurance, auto and telco drove growth, with insurance growing north of 100%.

Wade Davis, the company’s CEO, previously gave an optimistic outlook on the upfront at TelevisaUnivision’s most recent earnings call.

“Looking ahead, from a timing perspective, we’re progressing towards closing are U.S. upfront on the same timeline as the rest of the industry. The timeline is pretty much the only thing we’ll have in common with the rest of the industry in the upfront,” Davis said. “Early data indicates we’re going to have yet another year where we take meaningful share from English-language broadcasters. In addition, we expect to fare better than the market on pricing.”

Davis added that the company expected to finish with volume up in the mid-single digits at the time. He called it an “incredible achievement” considering the broader market was expected to face rollbacks.

Last year was the first combined upfront event for the Spanish-language media and content company following Univision and Televisa’s merger earlier in 2022.

In that first year as a combined company, TelevisaUnivision secured double-digit volume growth for its best upfront outcome in seven years. Pricing was strong with CPM increases in the high single digits. The increases were in line with other publishers, which often reported gains of 9-12% at the time.

What writers strike?

Like other upfront week presenters, TelevisaUnivision had the tough task of negotiating during an uncertain economic climate; however, the company was one of the only upfront week presenters that wasn’t affected by the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, with its production happening outside the United States and protesters skipping its upfront week event.

“This matters a lot because [advertisers] know there’s not going to be any disruption to the full slate of original content that we have every night of the week, 365 days a year,” Davis said recently in regard to the writers strike. “On the other hand, the uncertainty in the general market really creates a lot of challenges for advertisers in the upfront who are being asked to make forward advertising commitments for a broadcast year without the certainty of knowing what that content slate is going to look like.”

In an interview with Adweek following the company’s upfront week presentation, ad sales chief Donna Speciale acknowledged that it was a “slower pace” in this year’s negotiations. However, the ad sales leader noted that conversations were happening and had been continuing “for a while.”

Regarding priorities, Speciale said the importance of the Hispanic audience was paramount during the upfront, along with the growth of ViX. And the ad sales chief didn’t mince words in terms of TelevisaUnivision’s continued participation in upfront week.

“This is our one time to shine a light on the Hispanic audience, and we will be back,” the ad sales chief said.