CEO Daniel Alegre, at the helm of TelevisaUnivision for three weeks, said the political influence of U.S. Hispanic voters has never been more evident than in the current Presidential cycle, “where our audience will play a decisive role in the outcome of this election in the United States.” It was his first quarterly earnings call for the giant Spanish-language producer, broadcaster and parent of Vix streaming platform created from the merger of Univision and Mexico’s Television.
Former CEO and investor Wade Davis, an executive at the company formerly called Viacom (now Paramount Global) for 15 years through 2019, put the merger together. He kicked off the Wall Street convo after financials reported this morning, saying there’s no one better than Alegre, formerly of Activision Blizzard, Google and Bertelsman “to drive this next phase of our journey.”
“There’s huge value to be unlocked in this next phase, but this opportunity comes with unique challenges. It was with this in mind that we initiated our succession planning process earlier this year. We were looking for a leader that had a unique combination of skills and experiences difficult to find in one executive. Someone who’s a Spanish speaker. Someone who has extensive experience across the U.S., Latin America and Mexico in particular, has experience managing large scale global enterprises, and media and technology expertise,” Davis said.
The company is constantly pushing advertisers to acknowledge its reach with a large and fast-growing group of consumers. The upcoming election is proving critical – certainly for political campaigns, Alegre said. Some “91% of U.S. population growth since the last presidential election “comes from the growth in the Hispanics in this country.”
“Whether it is advertising on our platforms or appearing on our networks, we’re helping the candidates reach this valuable voter. Our recent Town Halls with both presidential candidates demonstrate how pivotal our networks can be in driving engagement, both on and off the platform,” he said, noting that the two events – with VP Kamala Harris Oct. 10 and former President Donald Trump last week — generated 100 million digital impressions. In the case of Kamala Harris, “we saw a 5% favorable move in the perception of the candidate after the Town Hall.”
He said Univision is still awaiting the results from Donald Trump’s Town Hall.
“What this tells us, and what all campaigns should be aware of, is that if you engage with the audience in their own language, the results can be game changing. This is even stronger … in the contested states, where it is common knowledge that the Hispanic vote will be the determining factor in who will win the election in November.”
Alegre turned to the other piece of the company’s Televisa business in Mexico, a strategically located nation with a young population with a fast-growing economy.
“Our next phase will center around driving further integration of the two legacy companies. “Each of these has been around for more than 60 years [but] we have a real opportunity to shift two regional companies into one global company.”
