MIAMI—TelevisaUnivision reported Q4, 2022 financial results that showed its streaming service ViX now has more than 25 million monthly users on its free tier alone, making it the world’s largest Spanish-language streaming service, the company reported.
Unlike a number of other media companies whose earnings were hurt by mounting streaming losses, the TelevisaUnivision earnings report included growth in both revenue and profits, despite the large investments in expanding its streaming operations.
“A year ago we created TelevisaUnivision to become the largest Spanish language media company in the world. We executed a strategy to create a business without comparison, and our stellar results in 2022 demonstrate the power of our combined company,” said Wade Davis, CEO of TelevisaUnivision. “Our content engine in Mexico continues to produce hits that resonate in both the U.S. and Mexico and is now powering our market-leading streaming platform as well as our linear networks. ViX is now fully launched and is the definitive leader in Spanish-language streaming in less than a full year of operations. The growth and profitability of our core business more than offset the investments we made in ViX. The power of the combined assets in the U.S. and Mexico cause us to continue to expect ViX to reach profitability by the end of 2023.”
Overall, fourth quarter revenue grew 22% to $1.5 billion, driven by a strong World Cup performance, advertising revenue growth of 14% in the U.S., and a full quarter of ViX subscription revenue.
Fourth quarter Adjusted OIBDA grew 5%, where the company’s core business more than offset its streaming investments, the company said and full year revenue grew 13% to $4.7 billion, marking the second consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth.
Full year Adjusted OIBDA of $1.7 billion reflected growth of $4 million, fully absorbing the peak year of streaming losses, TelevisaUnivision reported.
In addition it expanded its linear television market share in both Mexico and U.S. Spanish language, with around 60% in each market.
While the company provided user data for its free ViX ad-supported tier, it did not break out subscribers of its subscription ViX+ service.
It did note that for the full year, subscription and licensing revenue increased 20%, reflecting nearly $150 million from sublicensing the World Cup rights in other Spanish speaking Latin American countries and the launch of ViX's subscription tier.
In the U.S., growth of 22% was also driven by virtual MVPD revenue following carriage on YouTube TV that began in the third quarter of 2021. In Mexico, growth of 14% benefited from strong content licensing revenue and linear subscription price increases, while subscribers grew modestly.
For the fourth quarter, total subscription and licensing revenue grew 47%, the company reported. Excluding revenue associated with sublicensing the World Cup rights, U.S. subscription and licensing revenue grew 4%; Mexico grew 20% in the quarter.
