WS_1012_AZCARRAGA_REV2_WSN_1007_TECH 9/20/12 6:37 PM Page 5
in the news
subscriber. For example, in spite of far more competition, the average rating for Televisa’s top 15 pay-TV networks has more than doubled since 2003.
Ladies night: Picnic is among the series airing on Telehit, one of a vast array of cable and satellite channels operated by Televisa Networks in Mexico and around the world.
WS: Some analysts in the U.S. and Europe are saying that the future of television is not in free TV, which is only advertising supported, but in cable and satellite TV, which has a dual revenue stream of advertising and subscriptions. As Televisa operates both free TV and pay TV, how do you see the future of both? AZCÁRRAGA: We believe that over-the-air television will play an important role in Mexican households for many years. Not everyone will be able to afford pay TV, and not everyone will want to. Prices of pay-television packages in Mexico are rock bottom, which explains the fast growth in pay-TV adoption. But the quality of over-the-air television also plays a role. Our over-the-air channels provide some of the best content available on television, including our most successful telenovelas, entertainment shows, newscasts, and many of the most important sporting events. Fortunately for us, we also have the ability to reach the pay-TV viewer through many of our pay-TV networks, which are among the highest rated on pay television. If that pay-TV customer is also a customer of one of our cable companies, then we also have an opportunity to capture a revenue stream coming from voice
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and data services, in addition to an affiliate fee and the advertising revenue on that channel. This is where the expansion beyond content, and into distribution, plays an important role for the purpose of diversifying our revenue base. WS: You have been named MIPCOM’s 2012 Personality of the Year. What does this mean for you personally and for Televisa’s position as a major player in the international market? AZCÁRRAGA: Over the last few years we have been working hard on protecting the value of our content, and on finding ways to expand its reach. We have gone from a mostly domestic, advertisingdriven business model, to one that maximizes the value of our content by tapping its multiple sources of revenue, from advertising, to streaming, to licensing, to subscription revenue. We also made some inroads in the export of our business model to places as far as China. We continue to believe that our expertise in the production of content is best put to work when doing so together with experts in each of the markets that we access, and we are fortunate to have as our partners some of the most capable companies in the media industry. I am very proud of the progress we have made and excited about the prospects for our business.
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