Ignacio “Nacho” Meyer, president of the U.S. television networks group at Spanish-language media giant TelevisaUnivision, spoke Thursday at a television industry meeting in Madrid, Spain, about the challenges and especially the opportunities for the company and his colleagues in the media and entertainment industry.
“Media companies are like huge cargo ships,” he said during a keynote session at the Iberseries & Platino Industria Conference and Marketplace, which focuses on Spanish- and Portuguese-language content, according to the English translation of his Spanish comments. “We have several resources that allow us to be agile.”
Meyer's speech kicked off the third day of the event, the so-called US Day, focused on US Hispanic content. “Hispanic is mainstream. It's no longer a niche,” he said.
How do you think about the future? “We have a global vision,” the executive said. “And that's new for our company.” The launch of the ViX streaming service contributed to this. Meyer said it's all about smart content and other investments, highlighting the importance of “live content and big events, like sports and elections,” concluding: “The content has to be good and have a clear objective.”
Arguing that the old adage that “content is key” is truer than ever, he said it is also critical to get content into the right platforms where it fits and makes sense. “We have a beautiful challenge ahead of us,” but also the resources to succeed, the TelevisaUnivision executive said.
Mentioning the “structural challenges” of traditional TV in the streaming world, Meyer said one of the biggest challenges and goals is “reconnecting with our universe,” adding that audience measurement continues to need improvement and is “ a big nuisance.” .” He noted: “The measurement tools are not standardized,” adding that “these companies are not willing to give us more information.” Total views per platform would be a great metric but difficult to compile so far. Knowing better and targeting audiences will help better serve viewers and also improve profit margins, he said.
“It's basically a data war,” Meyer also said Thursday. Advertising buying is also in a phase of change, he pointed out, noting that it is becoming “more agile and 100% measurable”. The data war “is about to begin,” he suggested.
Meyer also mentioned November's big U.S. presidential election and TelevisaUnivision's role in connecting candidates with Hispanic audiences. “We will be fortunate enough to have both presidential candidates speaking to the candidates,” he said. “They will speak English and they will talk to Hispanic audiences and ask them in Spanish about the topics that interest them.”
TelevisaUnivision management had previously forecast a “fantastic” second half of 2024 for its advertising business, driven by streaming growth and the U.S. presidential election, which the company forecasts will lead to a company record of political ad revenue for l 'year. TelevisaUnivision plays a key role in reaching Hispanic audiences who are expected to have a key impact on the outcome of the election. According to the Pew Research Center, about 36.2 million Hispanics will be eligible to vote this year, up from 32.3 million in 2020. The research also suggests that the increase in Hispanic voter turnout in 2020 will easily outpace the growth of other voters and could increase by 25%.
Meyer took over the role of head of U.S. networks at TelevisaUnision from Luis Silberwasser, who left to become president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports. He reports directly to the CEO of TelevisaUnivision, a role that Wade Davis recently left to Daniel Alegre, former president and COO of Activision Blizzard and CEO of Yuga Labs, to focus on his new role as vice president.
Davis recently said that with the transition from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris, the presidential election has ended up in “uncharted” territory, but stressed that trends make him confident the company will see “record” political ad revenue this year. “We believe this change … will further accelerate fundraising and intensify the need for candidates to message our audiences,” he said. “In addition to the action at the top of the ticket, there is an unprecedented level of attention on Senate and Congressional races and a growing number of underselected issues.”
TelevisaUnivision recently re-emphasized that its streaming business, which had finished 2023 with more than 7 million subscribers, would become profitable in the second half of 2024. Its streamer ViX, which fully launched more than two years ago, has surpassed 50 million global monthly active users. (MAU) in the second quarter, compared to more than 40 million MAUs at the end of September.