TelevisaUnivision Won't Say If It Will Bid for 2030 World Cup U.S. Rights
TelevisaUnivision's chief executive, Daniel Alegre, would not say on Thursday whether the Spanish-language broadcaster will bid for U.S. rights to the 2030 FIFA World Cup. He was asked on the company's third-quarter earnings call, the results briefing where executives take questions from investors and analysts, according to Deadline.
FIFA opened the bidding for those U.S. rights in the week before the call. Rights are the permissions a broadcaster buys to show a tournament, usually for a fee. Alegre did not answer the question directly. He said the management team is "very happy" with its existing sports portfolio.
He then listed what the company already shows. That includes Formula 1 races, next February's Super Bowl, and soccer competitions run by CONCACAF, the body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, and CONMEBOL, the South American body. "Nobody knows and broadcasts soccer better than we do, both in Mexico and the United States," he said. He also said the company has tried to be "disciplined" in how it approaches sports rights.
The quarter's numbers pulled in two directions. Total revenue reached $1.4 billion, up 9% from a year earlier. Revenue in Mexico rose 51%. In the United States, revenue fell 14% and advertising sales dropped 24%, figures the company reported for the quarter ended in September.
Operating income before depreciation, amortisation and certain other items, known as OIBDA, dipped 3% to $1.17 billion. The company also booked a $372 million non-cash impairment, a write-down in the value of its TV broadcast licences on its books. No cash left the business for that charge, but it cut the value the company assigns to those licences.
Debt stood at 5.5 times trailing earnings, the same leverage ratio as in the previous quarter. Subscription and licensing revenue rose 30% to $640.1 million. About $90 million of that came from sublicensing, where the company passes on rights it holds to other broadcasters, according to Inside Radio.
The pattern is not new. In July, the company's second-quarter results also showed a sharp U.S. advertising drop, while the FIFA World Cup lifted its Mexico business.
TelevisaUnivision runs the Univision, Las Estrellas, Canal 5 and UniMas broadcast networks. It also owns 38 cable networks, including TUDN and Galavision, the Videocine film studio, 35 terrestrial audio stations in the U.S., and the ViX streaming service. Whether the company will join the bidding for the 2030 tournament is still open. Alegre did not give a yes or no.
