August 15, 2007
Televisa-Univision Suit Saga
The discovery portion of the Televisa-Univision lawsuit has been contentious and exhaustive. According to a recent federal court filing, Univision has produced some 2.6 million pages of documents. The Spanish-language broadcaster inadvertently provided 88 pages of documents protected as attorney work product or attorney-client communications.
Among these documents was a financial analysis of Televisa’s lawsuit claims prepared by Univision’s finance department at the behest of the network’s legal department. That analysis groups the Mexican broadcasters into the categories of “Crack Cocaine Assertions” and “Marijuana Assertions.”
Univision requested Televisa return these and other documents. When Televisa refused, Univision filed a motion to compel Televisa to return or destroy the documents. Televisa responded in writing that “Univision has waived any purported privilege by attempting to selectively and strategically claw back only damaging documents.”
The judge granted Univision’s motion. The trial is scheduled to commence Jan. 15, 2008.
According to a recent U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing, Univision spent $6.6 million for “Televisa litigation costs and Televisa payments under protest and other license-fee overcharges” during the second quarter of this year.
[back to top]
Univision Reports Second-Quarter Loss
Univision posted a net second-quarter loss of $19.5 million. Net revenues were down 6.9% compared to the same period last year, which saw revenues increase due to the World Cup. Revenues were strong at Univision Radio, but owned-and-operated television stations in Los Angeles were down.
During the second quarter, Univision paid its owners a $5 million management fee; $4.2 million for merger-related expenses, including headhunter fees; $1.4 million for share-based compensation; and $2.1 million in consulting fees associated with the switch to Oracle software. This was in addition to the $6.6 million in fees related to Televisa litigation costs mentioned in the previous story.
[back to top]
InterMedia Buys 50% of Cine Latino
Private-equity firm InterMedia Partners has acquired a 50% stake in Cine Latino for an undisclosed amount. The remaining 50% of the Spanish-language movie channel will remain in the hands of Mexico City-based Grupo MVS. Commercial-free Cine Latino has over 3 million subscribers in the United States and 2 million subscribers elsewhere.
“The movie genre, after novelas, is the most-popular programming genre,” said InterMedia senior investment partner Alan Sokol. “The upside is going to come from the organic growth in cable and satellite take-up among Hispanics, which is compounded by the growth in the population and the growth in the number of digital cable and satellite households.”
Last October, InterMedia purchased Puerto Rico television station WAPA-TV and spinoff mainland cable and satellite network WAPA America. According to Sokol, subscriber growth at WAPA America is up 20% over the last year.
[back to top]
The Death of ‘El Señor Telenovela’
Ernesto Alonso, the Mexican actor, producer and director known as “El Señor Telenovela,” died recently in Mexico City.
Alonso became famous for his grand, sweeping historical telenovela productions, such as El Carruaje, Senda de Gloria and El Vuelo del Aguila. Over a long career, Alonso worked with telenovela stars such as Lucía Méndez, Verónica Castro and Angélica María. He died of pneumonia at age 90.
At his death, he was trying to drum up interest in a telenovela based on the life of seventeenth-century Mexican nun and poetess Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.
Alonso began working in television at the express request of Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, then the CEO of Televisa and the late father of current CEO Emilio Azcárraga Jean.
[back to top]
Clemente Cabello is the executive director of Mexico City-based Alterna’TV, which distributes a total of nine networks in the United States. The channels come from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. The latest addition is the on-demand-only Mexican movie channel Mi Cine, which launched exclusively on Comcast in late July.
Cabello spoke to Hispanic Television Update about Mi Cine, other recent distribution agreements and the persistence of the Hispanic tier. An edited transcript follows:
Q: Please tell me about the Comcast deal you just signed for distribution of a new VOD-only movie channel Mi Cine.
A: Mi Cine is now available nationwide to all of Comcast’s Cable Latino subscribers. Our exclusivity agreement with Comcast means that we won’t be offering this to satellite or telco providers for a fixed period of time. We will be offering it to other cable systems, though.
Mi Cine is a channel that features Mexican movies and enjoys the benefit of owning the rights to one of two or three largest Mexican film libraries in existence. These include some of the most popular titles of Mexican cinema. Fifteen movies will be made available each month and over time we intend to increase that to thirty movies a month.
The majority of Comcast’s VOD content is provided at no additional expense by programmers. However, we are getting paid.
Q: You always hear programmers complaining they are told by operators that there is not enough bandwidth to launch a new channel. Was that an obstacle here?
A: Fortunately, it is easier to launch a VOD-only channel because all you need is space on servers, rather than bandwidth.
Q: Have you explored the possibility of selling the individual movies as video downloads?
A: We are beginning with the VOD option via cable. We are in the initial stages of evaluating various video-download options.
Q: What’s the latest with the other Alterna’TV networks in terms of distribution?
A: In May, we signed an agreement with Cablevision [Systems]. In July, we launched three networks on Comcast in Chicago. I hope within the next month we´ll be able to announce a major distribution deal that is pending.
Q: Come October, Comcast is planning on expanding the number of Hispanic networks available on digital basic. Do you think other operators will follow their lead? Does this mark the beginning of the end of the Hispanic tiers?
A: I don’t think so at all. I believe the Hispanic tier will continue being the primary distribution medium for the majority of the Hispanic cable networks. Maybe in a few special markets, systems will place Hispanic networks that have a broad appeal on digital Basic, networks such as Fox Sports en Español and maybe some of the music channels. But I believe the majority of the Hispanic networks will continue being niche channels distributed through the Hispanic tiers. At least for the next three to five years, the Hispanic tier will stay with us.
I believe the cable systems will continue to be very conservative on this front. They are not going to want to dedicate the bandwidth or carriage fees associated with putting Hispanic networks on digital basic. We are a long way off from anyone following Comcast’s lead in this matter.
Sí to a Univision Debate
(Excerpted from the Aug. 13 Broadcasting & Cable print edition)
Univision, the country’s largest Spanish-language network, has invited the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to address its considerable TV, radio and online audience on issues affecting the Hispanic community. According to the network, the debates, which would be translated simultaneously into Spanish, would reach 99% of Hispanic households.
Sí TV Promotions Target Latinos Who Speak English
(Excerpted from Aug. 6 print edition of Multichannel News)
To prove it is muy caliente with its target market, Sí TV has participated in a variety of affiliate promotions designed to attract English-dominant Hispanics as digital-tier subscribers. For instance in Los Angeles, that’s meant helping the newly dominant provider, Time Warner Cable, introduce itself to this niche through sponsorship of a showcase of Latino comedians. Further north, in Fresno, the network created a campaign leveraging Sí TV’s dating show, Dating Factory, to "court" Latino customers for Comcast.
For more ...
-
The Miami Herald reports that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will join fellow Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) at the Univision “forum” of presidential candidates. According to the Herald, “Univision has started calling what it formerly dubbed a debate a ‘forum’’ so Clinton could stick by her statement that she’d only participate in six debates.”
For more ...
[back to top]
WRITER:
EDITOR:
Eric Smith
646-746-6962
HispanicTV@reedbusiness.com
AD SALES:
RB Interactive
1-888-7RBI WEB
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All rights reserved.
|
