Televisa Chief Stresses Role of Global Partnerships

CANNES, October 9: Delivering the Latin American keynote at MIPCOM today
in a session moderated by Anna Carugati, the group editorial director of WSN
INC.—the company behind World Screen and TV Latina—Emilio
Azcárraga, the president and CEO of Grupo Televisa, stressed the importance of
global partnerships as part of the Mexican media giant’s continued
international expansion.

Kicking off his presentation, Azcárraga noted that his tenure at the
company has been during “the most radical and exciting time in the history of
the [media] business.” Laying out his vision for Televisa’s future, Azcárraga maintained
“the future belongs to those who are creative,” and those who can act quickly,
in a time when viewers expect more from their programming, and shareholders are
looking for greater returns on their investments.

At the heart of the company’s strategy, Azcárraga noted, is that “great
content is king,” and that Televisa “has delivered on every promise we have
made.”

Having “reached the limits of our expansion in Mexico,” Azcárraga
stressed that the company is continuing to look beyond its borders for growth,
with a “focus on expansion via partnerships.”

In the U.S. market, where Televisa continues to provide a host of
programming to Hispanic broadcaster Univision, a focus will be on expanding
into English-language content. Local-language programming will also be a key
for building its business in Europe, Asia and Africa. “We have sold a lot of
our programs throughout the world. We believe, with the evolving challenges we
have, local content is very important. Understanding a culture from a local
standpoint is very important.” He added that Televisa has built itself as a
content producer that is home to “a factory of dreams and those dreams can be
translated into any language.”

Across Latin America, meanwhile, Azcárraga noted that “in major centers,
we are witnessing a demographic phenomenon,” with a booming youth population
who have become accustomed to a “globalized interconnected world,” accessing
content across a range of platforms. “They want to be engaged and entertained.”
As the company expands its multiplatform capabilities, “the opportunity to
capitalize on growth is incredible. There is an audience waiting to be served.”

Demonstrating Televisa’s capabilities across its various divisions,
Azcárraga showed a presentation about Rebelde, which it acquired as a
format from Argentina and has built into a multimedia franchise spanning TV,
radio, music, live events, online content, consumer products and more, built
around the popular group RBD. “We remade and rebranded it using our people and
know-how. The rest is history.” Azcárraga added: “We have the means and the
know-how to exploit a property [on multiple platforms].”

When asked about how he has led the company over the years, and about
the doubts that existed about he and his team when they took over the company,
Azcárraga quipped, “The investors that didn’t believe in Televisa ten years ago
[and sold their shares] lost a lot of money. The share price is now 89 or 100
dollars. We are going to be 200 dollars in ten years I hope!”