MEXICO- In recent days, open Mexican television had a breath of fresh air. Between threats of bankruptcy, scolding from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, lawsuits on social networks and plummeting telenovela ratings, a version of the private life of famous locals filmed day and night even in the toilets came to the fore.
The House of Celebrities achieved a series of records that Televisa and its streaming platform VIX+ did not expect and at the end of the 10-week broadcast in which the contestants fought day and night to live with the differences in habits, gossip and challenges, it achieved various challenges, among others, capturing the attention of 20 million people.
In the Grand Final on Sunday August 13, 80 million users used their accounts to chat online about the reality show and throughout the transmission it obtained 30 trending topics nationwide and five trends in Google during the grand finale.
The success in general resulted in a long and triumphant statement from the company that media analysts interpreted as a need to highlight a positive side and the recognition that Mexican broadcast television is far from the glories of yesteryear.
Now, rather, it is in a fight of ups and downs in its finances, ratings, falls in the stock market and the loss of brightness in front of the streaming platforms that, although it is not something new, it is still surprising that it continues on the streak of “survival” of which there has been talk at least since 2017.
At that time, an analysis by Forbes magazine pointed out that the debacle of open television —whose power came to be imposed by presidents in the country— was mainly due to five factors: its lack of flexibility due to the size of the companies, the lack of diversification of their audiences; the lack of originality and quality of its contents as well as the sharpness to adapt popular internet figures to the small screen.
Six years later, one of the star products is still in question. Although the classic soap operas maintain certain audiences through streaming (VIX, in the case of Televisa), the new new productions do not rebound.
Vencer la culpa, for example, has barely 2.2 million and another of its big bets and Tierra barely reached 900,000 while Televisión Azteca completed eight years without producing soap operas.
The stars?
A sample of the troubled waters in the two main television stations in the country can be found in the most recent results of their finances, full of ups and downs, announcements of triumphs and failures. Last May, for example, TelevisaUnivisión sang its good results for the 2023 quarter.
Among other triumphs, he highlighted that company revenue increased 5% to $1.34 billion compared to the same period last year, mainly driven by the growth of its advertising and subscription businesses. He said that advertising saw a 6% increase and subscriptions 4%.
The company produced more than 900 hours of original content in the second quarterincluding popular shows like “La Voz,” “Exatlón” and “Narcos: México” that helped attract viewers to the company’s platforms and strengthen its position in the Spanish-language media market and even in China.
However, for July, the Mexican Stock Exchange detailed that Grupo Televisa’s profits plummeted in the second quarter of the year, registering 172.5 million pesos, which it represents barely five percent of the amount reported in the same period last year.
Emilio Azcárraga’s company informed the Mexican Stock Exchange that its financial statements were adjusted to reflect the impact of the transaction with TelevisaUnivision, which concluded on January 31, 2022.
Televisa merged with Univision to create the world’s largest Spanish-language content platform, with a potential of 600 million viewers.
A tycoon in distress
Far from the discretion of Mexican millionaires, Ricardo Salinas Pliego is strident and challenging even in lean times, as he now appears with his star product and from where he has seen his fortune grow: TV Aztec.
He has a million-dollar tax debt with the Mexican governmentof which it has already paid a part (around 25 million dollars at the current exchange rate) and maintains one in litigation for another 1,125 million dollars.
In public life, the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) suspended TV Azteca’s listing on June 1 for not delivering its financial reports in the midst of a conflict with its creditors.
The event occurred after a group of creditors made an “involuntary petition” last March to declare the telecommunications company bankrupt under Chapter 11 of the United States before the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York.
The Mexican company then promised to mediate with its holders of passive bonds for a total of more than 63 million dollars.
“We reiterate that we will continue working with strict financial discipline, thanks to which our operation remains solid in order to continue generating the best content for our audiences on open television and digital media,” he said in a statement on that occasion.
Between power and survival
In the financial whirlwind, political tension persists. ANDPresident López Obrador has had a love-hate relationship with television stations which in other times he accused of boycotting his equality and anti-corruption project as well as favoring the privileged classes, but he has also benefited them with official publicity, although less than in other six-year terms.
Particularly with Ricardo Salinas, Pliego had a period of romance when he appointed him his adviser and handed over to Banco Azteca the delivery of some social subsidies, but in recent months they have distanced themselves due to the magnate’s tax debt while Televisa continues to accuse her of being a news outlet. partial.
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