Grupo Televisa S.A.B. is the biggest media enterprise throughout the Spanish-speaking world including Hispanic America as well as Spain. In fact, trading in Mexico and here in the US, as an ADR on the NYSE under the ticker symbol (TV), the company traces its roots to the early 1950s when Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta consolidated the TV industry there by merging his broadcast TV network with two competitors while renaming the new entity as Telesistema Mexicano S.A. de C.V. Moreover, the business quickly grew tremendously after 1972 when Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, nicknamed as “El Tigre”, took over the business after the passing of his father. Likewise, under the stewardship of El Tigre with the introduction of new divisions such as the acquisition of the most circulated magazine title in Spanish known as “Vanidades” from the late Venezuelan publisher Armando De Armas, programming deals to export programs and heavy investments hiring actors and actresses to produce popular soap operas widely known as telenovelas in Hispanic America, Televisa became a household name in Hispanic America.
Furthermore, the fast expansion the company underwent under the direction of El Tigre took a heavy toll on the company’s finances and eventually when Emilio Azcárraga Jean took over after the passing of his father in 1997, he proceeded with a carefully planned restructuring of the company’s finances. Accordingly, this restructuring included the consolidation of his own shareholding in the company as well as bringing new strategic investors including Carlos Slim Helú, María Asunción Aramburuzabala Larregi and the Fernández González clan. In addition, the company undertook a seasoned equity offering raising $ 1 billion in 2000 and $ 1.3 billion of the $ 1.8 billion the company held in debt that year was restructured by means of exchanging debt for new equity in the company. Other measures taken included getting rid of the company’s fleet of jets, yacht, old executives, reduction of pay packages, shutting down a bleeding cable news channel and downsizing.
Today, Televisa commands a market share of nearly half of the media industry in Mexico. The remaining half of the media industry in Mexico is shared among six competitors including the newly renamed Azteca S.A. de C.V., MVS Comunicaciones S.A. de C.V., Grupo Imagen S.A.B. de C.V., Organización Editorial Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Grupo Reforma S.A. de C.V. and Grupo Expansión S.A. de C.V. Grupo Imagen is owned entirely by Grupo Empresarial Ángeles whereas Azteca S.A. de C.V. is publicly-traded and controlled by Grupo Salinas S.A. de C.V. Moreover, the colossal media company contains today 15 divisions including a broadcast TV network airing nationwide and a radio network covering the whole country also. Other core divisions include a chain of 21 Paid TV channels, two online businesses, a film studio, a magazine publisher, the biggest magazine distribution business in Hispanic America, the biggest soccer stadium in Latin America, a soccer team, the largest broadband internet and Cable TV operator in Mexico and control of a Satellite TV operator known as Sky Mexico. Non-core divisions include a lottery business, a gaming company, an investment fund and a merchandising outfit.
To conclude, Televisa is nowadays a true champion of Spanish-language media reporting sales of close to $ 5 billion a year while employing over 20,000 Mexican nationals including the export of popular telenovelas as well as other programs to be transmitted north of the Rio Grande after catering to consumers of Hispanic origin here in the US. Moreover, Emilio Azcárraga Jean, a third-generation descendant of the deceased founder after being his grandson, has done a wonderful job streamlining the huge assortment of businesses and interests to integrate them harmoniously and efficiently in order to provide investors in the publicly-traded company with lucrative and measurable strong results.