Univision First Quarter Radio Revenues Flat

Q1 Up, But Radio Flat

UNIVISION COMMUNICATIONS INC. first quarter 2020 overall revenue from continuing operations rose 8% year-to-year to $660.4 million, with income falling from $36.9 million to $11.7 million, including a non-cash impairment loss of $75.1 million due to writedowns in anticipation of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Adjusted OIBDA3 up 23% to $251.1 million. Radio was slightly off, from $51.3 million to $51.1 million for the quarter, with ad revenue flat at $48.8 million, core advertising revenue off 7% to $43.9 million, non-advertising revenue off from $2.5 million to $2.3 million, and political revenue up from $1.8 million to $4.9 million.

CEO VINCE SADUSKY said, “As our company confronts the current global health crisis, our teams developed and executed a strong employee safety plan while continuing to provide an essential service of informing and entertaining our communities. Our news and entertainment content is experiencing high demand and our service continues uninterrupted at a time when our community depends on us the most. Furthermore, we’ve taken measures to strengthen our balance sheet and maintain the health of our company to manage through the impact of this global crisis.

“Prior to the crisis, we achieved continued ratings momentum in the important FEBRUARY sweeps period, where we not only expanded our share lead over competitors but with an 18% portfolio ratings growth we also ranked as the fastest growing portfolio of networks in the country, regardless of language. This momentum has continued through the crisis driven by our strong news and entertainment content. As our content strategy propelled our growth across platforms, UNIVISION also enjoyed operational and financial momentum during the quarter with an eight percent increase in revenue and twenty-three percent increase in Adjusted OIBDA.”

The company's release projected that "advertising will materially weaken from the first quarter due to further postponement of live sports and lower demand from advertisers adversely impacted by the health crisis." Job cuts and other cuts in expenditures are in effect, but the company anticipates taking a $15 million restructuring charge in the second quarter as it expects a global recession to further adversely affect business.

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