Good news for Mexico TV rivals

Televisa, Azteca post quarterly jumps in sales

By JAMES YOUNG

MEXICO CITY -- Amid flu-related doom and gloom in Mexico, Spanish-language TV giant Televisa and its smaller rival TV Azteca released quarterly financials Thursday offering a little good news -- both reported sizable jumps in net sales at 19.1% and 8%, respectively.

Televisa's sales are once again buoyed by stratospheric growth in its cable, satellite and telco units, helping the conglom draw $820 million net sales and just under $200 million operating income.

The gains were somewhat offset by legal and debt-related expenses that resulted in an overall 7.2% year-to-year drop in net profit to $70.5 million.

Legal costs were due to the media empire's massive battle over content rights with Univision, which -- except for the question of Internet rights -- has finally been settled.

Televisa's cable and telco net sales went through the roof this quarter, up 110% year-to-year to $160 million. Between its two cablers, Cablevision and Cablemas, Televisa now boasts some 208 million subscribers for video, telephony and Internet services.

The broadcaster's satcaster Sky Television also saw a hefty 10% jump in sales to $174 million. This reflects an overall 8.6 % rise in subscribers and heavy growth into Central America.

All in all, the cable/telco/satellite divisions now contribute more to Televisa's bottom line than traditional TV sales, which grew 4.1% to $292 million.

Televisa also saw an 18.7% rise in international sales to $50 million and an uptick in primetime market share to 73.8% from 72.8% last year.

Though TV Azteca's net sales rose to $133 million and its operating income jumped 14% to $38.5 million, it saw an overall net loss of $45 million for the quarter, reflecting peso devaluation and the resultant 6% rise in costs and operating expenses.

Azteca's year-to-year financials look better on paper due in large part to a one-time deferred income tax hit it took this time last year.

Nevertheless, the No. 2 broadcaster did manage to see some growth with sales at its U.S. subsidiary, Azteca America, up 79% to $13.3 million as well as slightly stronger international sales of its telenovelas, up to $2.96 million from last year's $2.02 million.