TelevisaUnivision Considers Replacing CEO Wade Davis

TelevisaUnivision Considers Replacing CEO Wade Davis - The New York Times

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TelevisaUnivision Considers Removing C.E.O. Who Knit Company Together

Wade Davis led an acquisition of Univision in 2020, buying out a consortium of private-equity owners.

TelevisaUnivision, the influential producer and broadcaster of Spanish-language television, is weighing a plan to immediately replace its chief executive, Wade Davis, according to three people briefed on the plan who would speak only anonymously because the discussions are private.

The board of TelevisaUnivision is set to meet this week to consider the proposal, the people said.

Daniel Alegre, the former president and chief executive officer of Activision Blizzard, is under consideration for the chief executive role, two of the people said. Under the plan, Mr. Davis would remain a TelevisaUnivision shareholder and serve on the company’s board of directors as its vice chairman.

The change would be a stunning turn of events for TelevisaUnivision, which was created in 2022 by a merger led by Mr. Davis. With backing from giants like Google and Softbank, Mr. Davis united Univision with Televisa, its biggest supplier of programming, in a $4.8 billion deal.

Mr. Davis led an acquisition of Univision in 2020, buying out a consortium of private-equity owners who had soured on their investment. Univision had been at a crossroads, hampered by disaffection in its upper ranks and with an expensive licensing deal with Televisa.

Mr. Davis, a former chief financial officer at ViacomCBS, brought in an investor group and said he would make streaming a top priority. A native English speaker, he also pledged to learn Spanish.

After he took over, Univision acquired the Spanish-language streaming service Vix, and launched PrendeTV, an ad-supported streaming service. It was a strategy Mr. Davis was familiar with; During his tenure at Viacom, he helped the company acquire PlutoTV, a popular ad-supported streaming service. He then completed the merger with Televisa.

But TelevisaUnivision’s financial performance has not met its own internal targets, according to two people familiar with the company’s forecasts, and it is not on track to meet its internal financial target for this year.

The company has also made little progress in paying down its debt. The company said in July that it had roughly $9.8 billion dollars in debt, down only slightly from roughly $9.9 billion shortly after the merger. The company’s profits have also dipped, decreasing to $1.61 billion last year from $1.69 billion in 2022.

Despite those challenges, Univision increased its ad revenue last year. In 2023, Univision’s ad revenue increased 8 percent — to $2.98 billion — compared with ad revenue for the previous year.

Mr. Alegre has deep experience in Hispanic media. He was previously an executive at Google, including serving as the company’s vice president of Latin America. Earlier in his career, Mr. Alegre was an executive at BMG Music, where he managed the company’s Central American operations.

Like most traditional TV companies, TelevisaUnivision has struggled to increase profitability as cable and satellite providers become increasingly reluctant to pay ever-higher rates for programming. In July, the company said its profitability had dipped compared to the same period a year ago, in part because of a decrease in licensing fees.

The company recently announced that its most popular news anchor, Jorge Ramos, would be leaving the network. Mr. Ramos, a 40-year veteran of Univision, has been synonymous with the network, anchoring “Noticiero Univision,” the company’s flagship newscast. Mr. Ramos will stay at Univision through the U.S. presidential election in November.

Benjamin Mullin reports on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact Ben securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or email at benjamin.mullin@nytimes.com. More about Benjamin Mullin
Univision Communications Inc.

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