Spanish-language broadcaster Grupo Televisa SAB enjoyed a significant 41 percent increase in its 2012 third-quarter profit compared to the same period last year thanks to a healthy boost of new cable and satellite television subscribers in Mexico. The company’s Sky Mexico satellite business lured 332,693 subscribers during the period for a total of 4.88 million customers after ending 2011 with 4 million subscribers. Televisa is the majority shareholder of Sky Mexico, with DirecTV Latin America as the second largest at 41 percent. Televisa’s three cable-TV units added about 30,000 video customers during the quarter for a total of 2.26 million. Televisa’s direct-to-home satellite operation grew revenues by a healthy 18.9 percent in the third quarter of 2012 compared to last year. Grupo Televisa is the second largest media conglomerate in Latin America behind Organizações Globo, with interests in television production and broadcasting, programming for pay television, international distribution of television programming, direct-to-home satellite services, radio production and cable broadcasting. The Mexico City-based company’s 2012 third-quarter income leaped from $155 million in the same period last year to $220 million during its most recent quarter.
   Televisa’s sales also rose 8.7 percent to $1.343 billion pesos, beating analysts’ 2012 third quarter estimates of $1.30 billion by more than $40 million. The company said it was also assisted by the increasing strength of the Mexican peso. In an Oct. 24 research note, Vector Casa de Bolsa Analyst Julio Zetina said his colleagues were pleasantly surprised by Televisa’s performance and the impact of Mexico’s booming subscriber base on that performance.
   “All of Televisa’s divisions maintained healthy performances, especially demonstrated in the pay-TV segments,” said Zetina. “The report was a positive surprise. Televisa has been investing in the expansion of its pay-TV businesses in the face of slowing broadcast-advertising sales growth, as viewers turning to other media such as the Internet. Their strategy to grow in this environment is clearly working.”
   Despite the advertisement slowdown, Televisa’s Broadcast advertising sales actually rose 1 percent to $470.9 million, though missing Barclays Analyst Vera Rossi’s estimate of $490 million. “Though Televisa missed the advertisement sales project, the more important matter is that the company’s broadcasting revenue, including sales of programs to other channels, rose 4.4 percent during the quarter, while sales from the company’s cable business rose 14.6 percent. It is also good news that the company’s revenue was boosted by sales of packages offered by cable television companies.” The only significant loss that Televisa experienced during the quarter was from stakes help in jointly held businesses. Losses on those investments jumped 71 percent to 209 million pesos.
   Televisa said the decline was primarily driven by losses accrued by its 50 percent ownership of mobile-phone carrier Grupo Iusacell, but was partially offset by its divestiture of a stake in Gestora de Inversiones Audiovisuales La Sexta earlier this year. Televisa has also spent the past two years upgrading its satellite infrastructure. Last Summer, Globecomm Systems completed its satellite uplink hub for Televisa at its Mexico City broadcast center. The hub was designed by Globecomm under a contract signed in early 2010 to support Sky’s DTH programming over Mexico via seven SD and three HD video carriers on 9-meter and 11-meter antennas, with the capability to switch to a backup 9-meter antenna in the event of terminal failure or maintenance. The hub also includes capacity built into the Televisa system for future carriers.
   Televisa also had its share of challenges during the past few years, especially as it has become increasingly competitive with Mexican billionaire telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim, who is considered the world’s richest individual. Slim controls América Móvil, the pan-American telecoms group and has been kept his distance from the Mexican television market due to obstacles imposed by regulators to limit his power in his home market.