Univision and Televisa agree merger to build streaming titan

Two of the world’s leading Spanish-language media companies have announced a multi-billion-dollar merger, with the plan to challenge Netflix in the Spanish-speaking world. 

The $4.8 billion tie up between Mexico’s Televisa, the world’s most prolific producer of Spanish-language TV programmes, and Univision, the largest US Spanish-language network, will create the biggest Spanish-language media company in the world, combining bases in Mexico and the US.

The deal, expected to be finalised later this year, involves the two companies combining media, production and content, to create a new entity, Televisa-Univision, they announced. Univision will pay around $4.8 billion for Televisa's content.

The details

• Televisa produced around 86,000 hours of content last year, and each company has numerous rights to sports events. 
• Univision’s assets include the Univision and UniMás networks, nine Spanish-language cable networks, 61 television stations and 58 radio stations, as well as a recently launched streaming service, PrendeTV.
• The plan is to launch a global streaming service early next year, focused on a market of 600 million Spanish speakers, and challenging the likes of Netflix in the Spanish-language market.

Key quote

"We are creating a company which is a leader across multi-media categories, unified over the largest territories and with the scale and focus to deliver the most compelling content experience to Spanish-language consumers around the world. 

Sourced from the Hollywood Reporter