Grupo Televisa announced its financial results for the third quarter of the year. The company reported that net sales increased by 10.5% to MX$ 25,033 million (USD 1.3 billion), driven by the growth in sales of the Content and Cable segments.
In the Content segment, third-quarter sales increased by 21.0% to MX$ 9,710 million (USD 501 million). Excluding the non-recurring revenue originated in the sublicensing of certain World Cup, sales increased 8.4% to MX$ 8,700 million (USD 448.8 million). Advertising revenue increased by 2.2% to MX$ 5,051 million (USD 260.6 million). This is the third consecutive quarter with growth in advertising sales, said the company.
In turn, Cable segment sales increased by 10.8% to MX$ 9,220 million (USD 475.7 million), driven by the addition of 62,000 broadband RGUs and 247,000 voice RGUs. The number of video RGUs dropped by 35,000. The loss is attributed to the transmission of the 2018 Soccer World Cup in the prior quarter. The group reported a total of 4.28 million video RGUs, 4.16 million broadband RGUs and 2.51 million voice RGUs.
DTH operator Sky also reduced its base. The number of net active subscribers decreased by close to 126,000 during the quarter to 7.8 million. Sky ended the quarter with 159,894 subscribers in Central America and the Dominican Republic. During third quarter 2018, Sky added 40,000 new subscribers of Blue Telecomm, which offers broadband services since March this year. The company reached a total base of 51, 000 subscribers.
In the Q318 report, Televisa said net income attributable to stockholders amounted to MX$ 978 million (USD 50.5 million) in third-quarter 2018 compared to MX$ 1,015 million (USD 52.4 million) in Q3 2017.