Industry News

Two of the biggest Spanish-language media companies in the world are now officially united in fiscal matrimony.

 

Grupo Televisa, S.A.B. and Univision Holdings II Inc. (together with its wholly owned subsidiary, Univision Communications Inc.) on January 31 completed their merger — a transaction between the Mexico City and New York-headquartered companies that effectively melds Televisa’s media content and production assets with those of Univision.

The new company takes the name TelevisaUnivision Inc. and creates one of the world’s leading Spanish-language media and content companies, joining PRISA on an Iberoamerican level of content distribution and advertiser opportunities.

“TelevisaUnivision will produce and deliver premium content for its own platforms and for others, while also providing innovative solutions for advertisers and distributors globally,” the companies said on Monday.

“The close of our transaction marks a historic moment for our company and our industry,” said TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis. “We are combining two iconic and market-leading companies that have a rich, shared history and an incredible portfolio of assets. This combination will create a business without comparison in the global media landscape. Over the past year both companies have transformed themselves, reaching levels of financial performance and audience resonance that has not been seen for years. The power and momentum of the transformed core business is truly unique and will be a springboard for the upcoming launch of the preeminent Spanish-language streaming service. The new trajectory of our company is supported by our new ownership group, which is well positioned to amplify the efforts of one of the best leadership teams in the world.”

Alfonso de Angoitia, Executive Chairman of the TelevisaUnivision Board of Directors, added that the combination of content assets from Televisa and Univision has created a company with “tremendous potential,” adding, “With our attractive financial profile and history of innovation, TelevisaUnivision is ready to revolutionize the industry by delivering the most comprehensive Spanish-language content offering to audiences around the world.”

In Mexico, Televisa’s four broadcast channels and 27 pay-TV channels, Videocine movie studio, and Blim TV subscription video-on-demand service are heritage brands; the television channels in recent years have come under intense pressure thanks to competition from TV Azteca and, to a more limited extent, satellite channels.

Univision’s assets in the U.S. include the Univision and UniMás broadcast networks, nine Spanish-language cable networks, 59 television stations and 57 radio stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets, and the fast-growing PrendeTV AVOD platform.

As a result of the combination, TelevisaUnivision reaches over 60% of the respective TV audiences in both the U.S. and Mexico. Across television, digital, streaming, and audio, the company reaches over 100 million Spanish speakers each day.

Integration and Position as One Company

Since announcing the transaction on April 13, 2021, Univision and Televisa have each transformed their core businesses in anticipation of the integration.

Ahead of that deal, Univision under Wade Davis has helped steer the company to new ratings and revenue riches.

This included widening and strengthening a long-standing partnership between the two businesses, mainly for content.

According to the newly combined company, Univision’s advertising revenue through the first nine months of 2021 increased by 32.6%, returning “significantly” beyond 2019 levels, while Televisa’s advertising revenue for the same period increased by 24% year-over-year.

Meanwhile, TelevisaUnivision remains on track to launch its previously announced unified global streaming service in 2022, which will include both a free and a premium subscription tier. The service will have the largest offering of original Spanish-language content in the U.S. and Latin America, including dramas, comedies, docuseries, game shows, reality shows, variety programs, movies, musical and cultural events, children’s and educational programs, sports and special events, as well as trusted news programming.

Leadership

• Wade Davis will lead TelevisaUnivision as CEO
• Alfonso de Angoitia will serve as Executive Chairman of the TelevisaUnivision Board
• Marcelo Claure will become Vice Chairman of the Board

The TelevisaUnivision Board will also be comprised of Emilio Azcárraga, Bernardo Gómez, Michel Combes, Gisel Ruiz, Oscar Muñoz, Maria Cristina “MC” Gonzalez Noguera, Eric Zinterhofer and Jeff Sine. In addition, Televisa retains the right to appoint two additional directors.

Content production and operations in Mexico will be led by Bernardo Gómez and Alfonso de Angoitia, Co-Chief Executive Officers of TelevisaUnivision Mexico, who also remain co-Chief Executive Officers of Grupo Televisa. Grupo Televisa’s news operations in Mexico will become part of a new, independent company dedicated to producing news for TelevisaUnivision’s networks in Mexico, and will be led by Emilio Azcárraga, Executive Chairman of the Grupo Televisa Board of Directors.

The company’s new investors include SoftBank Latin America Fund, Google and The Raine Group.

Advisors

For Univision: Guggenheim Securities and J.P. Morgan acted as financial advisors; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Sidley Austin LLP served as legal counsel; and Covington & Burling LLP served as regulatory counsel.

For Televisa: Allen & Company acted as financial advisor; Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and Mijares, Angoitia, Cortés y Fuentes, S.C. served as legal counsel; and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP served as regulatory counsel. LionTree Advisors LLC rendered a fairness opinion to the Board of Directors of Televisa.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP served as legal counsel to the SoftBank Latin America Fund.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP served as legal counsel to The Raine Group.

The annual release of Futuresource’s CE Tech Perspectives report is now available for download.

“We combine existing research from Futuresource along with announcements made during CES to provide you with the latest CE trends and market expectations for 2022,” the British tech advisory and media trends firm notes.

What’s the big takeaway from the latest report?

Futuresource notes, “2021 was seen as a challenging year for the CE industry, with uncertainty surrounding the impact of COVID19 coupled with the ongoing semiconductor shortages and ensuing supply chain issues. Yet the industry shipped almost 4.3 billion devices globally, a 5% increase over 2020, and is forecast to repeat similar growth
during 2022. So, we approach this year with refreshed optimism.’

Overall, Futuresource expects considered progression, rather than impulsive attempts at transformation, as businesses addressing the consumer electronics sector emerge from the COVID pandemic and reassess opportunities for innovation in a world with several “new
normals.”

Here are some of the top trends to watch during 2022:

• A Smart Lifestyle built around Smart TV
• The drive towards high quality, lossless audio
• A wider market opportunity for spatial audio
• The immersive in-vehicle experience
• Advancements in Headphones and Wearables
• Revitalized interest in AR and VR
• Supply chain issues will ease
• The video conferencing phenomenon continues
• Understanding the Metaverse

 

To download a free copy of this report, please click here.

A company known for its workflow automation, media processing, quality monitoring and test and measurement products in the video production and distribution arena has brought to market a captioning and subtitling software product.

Introducing Stanza, from Telestream.

It uses a subscription-based OPEX business model.

And, to help address the challenges of remote working, the client-server deployment model of Stanza allows captioning editors to work from any location from a browser-based editing console, regardless of where media files are stored. Stanza uses the Telestream GLIM engine to play back original high-res files instantly without any need to create and transfer proxy images.

With the ability to run on Windows, MacOS and Linux, Stanza is platform agnostic enabling editors and captioning agencies the ultimate in flexibility. Stanza includes optional access to the AI powered Timed Text Speech auto-transcription service which supports over 100 languages. Stanza also integrates with the Vantage Timed Text Flip text transcoder and processor to provide automation for captioning workflows.

 

To request an evaluation copy of Stanza, please click here.

A firm known for its content protection technology products for sports, media and entertainment brands has selected a new Head of Product.

The London-based executive is responsible for the company’s product strategy and managing an extensive product team, expanding its portfolio of video fingerprinting, watermarking and monitoring offerings.

Taking the post at Friend MTS is James Caselton.

“We are extremely pleased to add James to our talented product team,” said Jonathan Friend, Chief Product Officer at Friend MTS. “James and the team will enhance our class-leading feature set and user experience, maintaining and enhancing Friend MTS as the foremost solution in the continuing fight against content piracy.”

With 20 years of experience in mixed channel marketing, product management and sales and business development on a global scale, Caselton has worked for and with many of the world’s leading technology companies. Caselton has served as Marketing Director, EMEA, Dolby Laboratories, where he executed marketing campaigns with leading international partners. Previously, as International Sales & Marketing Manager for Phillips, Caselton managed the full product roadmap for all PC optical storage products for the business line worldwide.

WATERTOWN, MASS. —  Frustrated with problematic updates and poor customer service from their previous automation and playout vendor, a provider of local cable assess TV to residents in this Massachusetts city since 2005 switched to the Cablecast Community Media platform.

It was a move the City of Watertown says was made to improve its operations and meet its future needs.

Based within Watertown High School, Watertown Cable Access Corp (WCA-TV) operates three PEG channels (public, education and government) with a goal of connecting people and strengthening their community.

“We were increasingly unhappy with our previous system,” said Andrea Santopietro, Assistant Director at WCA-TV. “The manufacturer released what they considered major updates to their software, but the upgrades were buggy and seemed more like cosmetic changes rather than what customers like us wanted or needed. Lots of updates that we had been promised were never delivered, and it was frustrating going back and forth with their customer support staff but not seeing any real changes or fixes. Our programming was suffering to an extent, as was the public’s ability to access our content. We were ready to move on to something new.”

WCA-TV’s Executive Director Helen Chatel had worked with earlier versions of Cablecast at her previous station in Connecticut. While the technical and workflow advantages of the newest Cablecast solutions were attractive, Tightrope’s dedication to the PEG market was also a key factor in the station’s decision to choose them as their next platform. “What really led me back to Cablecast was that Tightrope and their resellers deal with Access on a daily basis,” Chatel said. “They understand our business, our urgency, and the need to do things right – especially as we are relied on more by our communities.”

WCA-TV purchased a complete Cablecast solution from Brockton, Mass.-based technology supplier Ockers Company in May 2021. A Cablecast VIO 4 Plus server provides automation and playout for the three channels, while three Cablecast Live units and a Cablecast Pro VOD server power 24/7 live streaming and video on demand. Cablecast CG software running on the Cablecast VIO server drives unique bulletin boards for each channel. Cablecast apps bring live streams and VOD clips to viewers on over-the-top (OTT) and mobile platforms, with digital content delivered over the Cablecast Reflect cloud-based streaming service. Finally, the Cablecast RTMP service lets the station easily integrate Zoom and hybrid meetings into their channels.

The workflow advantages of Cablecast’s scheduling interface proved immediately beneficial.

Cablecast has also significantly improved the station’s VOD publishing and presentation. “Getting content onto VOD with our previous system had become nearly impossible,” recalled Santopietro. “The vendor had released a new version of their VOD server, but we had to manually upload our content to a separate website. It took too many steps and was too time consuming. With Cablecast, there’s no extra work to publish to VOD. The simplicity is awesome.”

Santopietro also notes that Cablecast makes it easier for viewers to find VOD content of interest. “With our previous system, our VOD clips for all three channels were on one page,” she said. “We could put them into a folder for each program, but the folders were simply listed alphabetically. Now with Cablecast we have a distinct VOD site for each channel, and visitors can search across all three. We can also easily group and reorder content to make it more discoverable.”

Switching to Cablecast has already met WCA-TV’s objectives, but the team knows there’s even more to discover. “Cablecast has been awesome for us so far,” Santopietro summarized. “I’ve had such a great experience with it up to this point, but I know I’ve only scratched the surface of what it’s capable of. I’m looking forward to exploring it more and seeing all it can do for us.“

— Brian Galante, in Raymond, Me.

It’s the sign of a good engineer to design facilities with backup systems.

We all know it’s just a matter of time before the “main” whatever will fail, requiring full dependence on the backup gear.

But don’t be lulled into a sense of false security just because you have a backup — whatever it may be. For best reliability, these backup systems need to be tested periodically.

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In the old days many of us performed Sunday night maintenance, from midnight to 6 a.m., during which studios and transmitters were cleaned, and backup systems were tested on the air. Few of today’s broadcast engineers have that luxury, yet the backups still need testing to ensure reliability.

Case in point, a backup RF amplifier. For the purposes of this column, it was a 500-watt backup RF amplifier drawer that sat on a shelf at the transmitter site until it was needed in an emergency. Fortunately, a wise engineer decided to check out the relic. When it didn’t fire up, he sent it to a nearby contract engineer for repairs.

Fig. 1: Suspicions started with the back panel hole. (left)
Fig. 2: The skeletonized remains of a mature mouse and baby are visible among the litter. (right)

The first clue was a missing Sub-D connector on the rear panel. This hole was factory-punched, and not a modification. But perhaps a hole for an option that should have been covered — it was not. The missing connector left about a half-inch hole as seen in the first image. The text label gives you some idea of what was awaiting the engineer investigating the unit.

The second image shows the nest and mess that field mice made of the inside. What is amazing is that after opening the top of the transmitter, the contract engineer inspected the top, bottom and sides carefully to see if there was any other way in. There was not. So, takeaway No. 1 is that mice don’t need more than a half inch, and maybe less, to infest our gear.

The top was replaced and the contract engineer developed a cleaning plan, starting with purchasing a high-filtration full-face mask. Mouse urine, feces and litter can harbor dangerous (and possibly deadly) bacteria — mice are filthy animals. Because of the contamination hazard, do not use a vacuum to suction the debris; its exhaust will only contaminate the air and your shop.

This job called for several toothbrushes, wooden cotton applicators, Clorox or similar brand wipes, and bottles of at least 70% denatured alcohol, along with latex gloves. A large plastic trash bag was placed on the workbench and the amplifier was placed inside. The bag edges were folded up around the equipment to prevent any liquids from contaminating the workbench. The oversize bag also provided room to discard waste as it was removed, lessening the chance that the discarded debris would miss a garbage can.

Using a combination of wooden cotton applicators saturated in alcohol, needle-nose pliers (for removing larger pieces of debris), and the wipes, the painstakingly slow job of removing the nesting materials, feces and mouse skeletons began.

Yes, apparently both the momma mouse and two offspring died inside the equipment. In one of the accompanying photos (Fig. 2) you can see the spines, ribs and skulls of momma and one of the offspring.

Fig. 3: The destructive nature of mice includes their penchant for chewing wire insulation. (left)
Fig. 4: The cleaning is complete. (right)

In addition to using the chassis as a toilet, the mice chewed the insulation off several wires. The missing insulation can be seen on the red wire in the third image (Fig. 3). As a part of the repairs, the damaged wires needed to be replaced. Cable ties that secured bundles of wires had to be cut; the wires separated, and individually cleaned. The cleaning process was tediously slow, to avoid creating any airborne dust, while thoroughly cleaning.

After scrubbing with the swabs and toothbrush, and saturating the boards with the alcohol, the chassis was moved to a clean trash bag and left for 48 hours so all liquid cleaning fluids evaporated. If you’re doing work like this, seal the used bag with cable ties and dispose. Do NOT compress the bag as you seal it — the escaping air may have the bacteria you are trying to avoid.

The fourth image (Fig. 4) shows the sanitized unit. To complete the cleaning, the rear panel was dismounted from the enclosure, showing the “innards” of the RF amplifier. Note that the large aluminum heat sink to which the RF combiner circuit card is mounted (with the squiggly lines) made its way back to shining once again.

So inspect your backup gear — and especially any welcome holes, no matter how small.

John Bisset, has CPBE, more than 50 years in broadcasting and is in his 31st year writing Workbench. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award. Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.

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WorldCast Systems announced new versions of its APTmpX, an MPX/composite compression algorithm.

“APTmpX significantly lowers the hardware and distribution costs previously associated with standard FM network architecture,” the company said in the announcement.

“Despite the advent of the internet and digital broadcasting standards, FM remains the world’s most popular transmission format and a central technology in radio broadcasters’ efforts to maximize their reach and audience. As a result, new technologies have had to be created to enable an FM-centric workflow to also work for internet delivery.”

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It said the initial version, launched in 2020, offered FM broadcasters access to high-quality signal compression for centralized FM MPX/Composite transmission.

“This provided a game-changing solution in the <900 kbps region,” it continued. “However, the latest release of APTmpX takes this even further.”

Three versions are available that offer levels of compression at 600, 400 or 300 kbps network bandwidth. “This dramatically widens the potential impact of the technology on the industry and means that the composite signal can now directly be transported with non-destructive compression from 600 kbps down to 300 kbps, all at the highest sound quality,” it stated.

Gregory Mercier, director of product marketing, was quoted saying the new versions will particularly benefit broadcasters in areas of poor bandwidth penetration.

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Holly Saurer

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced several bureau staff changes on January 31, including new Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer.

Saurer has held several positions in the bureau including deputy bureau chief, associate bureau chief, senior legal advisor and attorney-advisor with the Media Bureau’s Policy Division. Saurer also has experience working in the offices of commissioners themselves.

For the past year, she has served as legal advisor of media for Chairwoman Rosenworcel. Before that, Saurer served as an acting media advisor for Rosenworcel as well as for former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. She also served as an International and Consumer Affairs legal advisor for former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Prior to joining the commission, Saurer worked at the Washington, D.C., offices of Drinker Biddle & Reath and Miller & Van Eaton. She received her JD from American University and graduated from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Saurer replaces Michelle Carey, who had served as chief of the Media Bureau since May 2017.

Rosenworcel also appointed several other new bureau chiefs, including new heads of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, the Public Safety Bureau, the Enforcement Bureau and the Office of the General Counsel.

“Ensuring modern communications reach every corner of the country isn’t possible without the leadership of incredible, capable experts throughout the commission,” Rosenworcel said in a news release. “I am confident in the talent at the FCC and honored this team will help lead the commission.”

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Adriana Rizzo will work on building audience growth for Audacy. She joins the company effective Jan. 31.

As senior vice president of consumer marketing, Rizzo will work across Audacy’s brand strategy, creative, messaging, media planning and attribution, to grow the company’s audience. She will report to Paul Suchman, Audacy’s chief marketing officer.

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“We’re thrilled to have Adriana join our growing team,” said Suchman. “Adriana will be a key partner to our business lines and to our marketing leads across broadcast, digital, sports betting and podcasting.”

Before joining Audacy, Rizzo launched the Discovery+ streaming service. Before that she worked at ESPN, launching WatchESPN, rebranding ESPN3 and repositioning ESPNInsider. Her early career includes marketing roles at Verizon, early-stage start-ups, and agency-side experience.

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SXM Media, part of SiriusXM, has rolled out a “listener identity solution” called AudioID that it says will help marketers reach consumers “at scale.”

“AudioID puts content and audiences first, providing an improved consumer experience across multiple platforms and a better way for brands to buy audio advertising,” the company stated. It calls this an example of its investment in audio ad technology “to make advertising across satellite radio, streaming music and podcasts as simple as pressing play or turning the dial.”

The announcement was made by Chief Revenue Officer John Trimble. AudioID uses technology from AdsWizz, which is owned by SiriusXM.

The company, which owns streaming platform Pandora and podcast producer Stitcher in addition to its flagship satellite business, positions itself as “the largest digital audio ad ecosystem in North America,” and said AudioID will expand its impact and appeal.

AudioID uses an algorithm that accepts and matches a variety of “consented” listener signals and weighs them, responding to ad requests by finding or creating “unique, anonymized AudioIDs.” IDs can be tapped for functions such as forecasting, frequency decisions and first-party targeting.

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The company will use its datasets of the populations of Pandora, SiriusXM and Stitcher listeners, matching them to create AudioIDs. “This will allow for a better ad experience for consumers, marketers and publishers, tapping into listener behavior and preferences in a way that supports the future of identity safety while helping marketers achieve their goals.”

Later this year, AudioID will be extended to off-platform parties through AdsWizz. Right now the effort is focused on the United States; in the longer term the company hopes to expand AudioID globally.

It said privacy protection is embedded into AudioID through anonymity. “AudioID always remaining an optional (versus required) solution for external parties.” Chris Record, senior vice president and head of ad product, technology & operations at SXM Media and AdsWizz, was quoted describing AudioID as “a consumer-first, privacy-conscious infrastructure.”

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