With the massification of the use of digital platforms to consume multimedia content, television has begun to lose ground, given the growing terrain that platforms such as YouTube, Netflix and many other counterparts have taken.
Televisa and Univisin, two large television production companies based in Mexico and the United States, respectively, announced the joint creation of a streaming platform with their content.
A new streaming platform, with a predominance of Latin American content
Both Televisa and Univisin produce content that has a wide reach in the Spanish-speaking market, with a strong emphasis on Latin America.
This initiative arose from the basis of the weight that at the content level represents the sum of the productions of both companies, as well as the strong impact that the new platforms have had on people’s habits for the consumption of audiovisual content.
Although, some decades ago, when television still occupied a preponderant role in the media, Televisa and Univisin were the protagonists of a fierce competition for the international market interested in Spanish content, having as emblems the productions of Chespirito on the one hand and on Sbado Giant with Don Francisco, on the other hand.
Today times have changed. For more than a decade, both television content production companies have been associated in an alliance, which will strengthen their ties more deeply with their next movement.
According to a public statement from both companies, issued by Televisa, this association will materialize with the creation of the company Televisa-Univisin, which is already being presented as the largest and most relevant Spanish-language media group in the world.
In a recent report alluding to this movement, the New York Times The Televisa statement highlighted that the Mexican company will receive 4.8 billion dollars (3 billion dollars in cash and most of the rest in Univision shares), for the transfer of its content catalog.
After this transaction, Televisa will become the main shareholder of this new company, monopolizing 45% according to the agreed agreement. This covers all areas of audiovisual activity of the company, contemplating transmission, subscription, digital television and live. On a financial level, Google, Softbank and The Raine Group support this business.
This new content distribution service will group together with Univisin’s broadcast and cable television productions, all Televisa’s programs, series, and movies (which last year produced 86,000 hours of programming) for its open, pay-as-you-go channels. for the cinema. In addition, this new company will also manage the online video services of both companies: PrendeTV and Blim.
The arrival of this announced platform, still without a name, will have a tentative date for early 2022, with global reach, seeking to gain ground among the approximately 600 million Spanish speakers in the world, by offering its television and film productions under a dynamic that it has more and more followers.
At the end of this year, this commercial movement should be considered as materialized, provided that it is approved by the financial authorities of Mexico and the United States, plus the shareholders of Televisa.
