Univision Narrows Q1 Loss

NEW YORK: U.S. Hispanic media company Univision Communications narrowed its first-quarter net loss from last year’s $166.2 million to $55.2 million, on revenues that were down 12 percent to $410.3 million.

"We continued to aggressively manage through the recessionary market conditions in the first quarter by diligently reducing costs across our business and maximizing efficiencies, while still investing in strategic opportunities that will be key to Univision’s long-term success," said CEO Joe Uva. "Given the current environment, we were pleased with our results and that we continued to outperform our English-language peers. We have already begun to see the impact of our success in signing multi-year retransmission agreements, which has created an entirely new built-in revenue stream for the company."

He continued: "We are also pleased with the feedback we have received from the upfront Partnership Forums we have held across the country over the last several weeks. Our message that the U.S. Hispanic community can be a growth market for advertisers in the current economic environment is resonating among both new and existing clients, and the fact that the Univision Network continued to see strong audience growth in the first quarter only further underscore our unique positioning."

Television revenues totaled $336.3 million, while the radio segment brought in $66.5 million and interactive media revenues were $7.5 million.