Cable business lifts Televisa's Q1 results

Televisa, Mexico's leading pay TV and content company, saw Q1 revenues increase by 2.6%, propped by a 14.2% jump in its cable business, according to its quarterly report.

The leader of Mexico's pay TV business with around 61% of the market, Televisa reported that revenues reached 23.4bn pesos (US$1.2bn), of which its cable division now represents 40.2%.

Cable revenue generating units reached 12.1mn in the quarter, a nearly 17% increase, pushed mostly by fixed broadband clients, which went from 3.97mn in 1Q18 to 4.57mn at the end of March.

The company saw its Sky satellite TV and broadband unit lose 251,000 customers from the same quarter of 2018 as prepaid clients that bought the service for the World Cup last year stopped recharging and were dropped in Q1, it added.

The unit, which now offers triple-play packages via fixed wireless modems, ended the quarter with 7.6mn subscribers, versus 7.9mn a year ago. Of those, 165,262 were new, broadband internet customers and 1,493 fixed telephony clients. Its video operations in Central America and the Dominican Republic accounted for 164,568 customers.

CAPEX ON THE RISE

Net profits dropped 20% to 542mn pesos but capex rose over 40% to US$223mn, versus US$159mn a year ago, with US$167mn going to its cable unit and 47mn to Sky. Televisa said that it remains on track for capital expenditures of around US$1bn this year.