Daniel Alegre Appointed as CEO
Wade Davis to Transition to Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors After Leading the Company’s Transformation
Result of the Board’s Long-Term Succession Planning Process
MIAMI–(BUSINESS WIRE)–TelevisaUnivision, Inc. (“TelevisaUnivision” or the “Company”), the world’s leading Spanish-language media and content company, announced the appointment of Daniel Alegre as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, effective September 19, 2024. As part of the Board of Directors’ long-term succession planning process, Mr. Alegre will succeed Wade Davis, who will transition to the role of Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and continue as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee.
Mr. Alegre, who hails from Mexico, has strong ties to the Hispanic community and deep work experience across the U.S., Mexico and Latin America. He is a seasoned executive with more than 30 years of global experience in media, entertainment and technology. He was most recently Chief Executive Officer of Yuga Labs, a leading web3 company. Previously, Mr. Alegre served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard, overseeing international gaming studios and the commercialization of franchises of the company’s renowned video games. Prior to that role, Mr. Alegre was at Google, where he had a consistent record of driving reach and revenue growth during his 16-year tenure. There, he held various executive positions, including President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, President of Shopping and Payments and President of Asia Pacific and Latin America. Mr. Alegre opened Google’s offices throughout Latin America and Asia, pioneering the company’s first strategic partnership network across the regions. Prior to Google, Mr. Alegre started his career in radio and music in Mexico and Central America.
“On behalf of the Board, I’m excited to welcome Daniel to TelevisaUnivision as we embark on the next phase of our strategic journey focused on further integration and optimization,” said Alfonso de Angoitia, Executive Chairman of TelevisaUnivision. “It’s been a very dynamic media environment, and we are grateful for what Wade has accomplished in the turnaround of Univision and the subsequent transformative merger between Univision and Televisa’s content business to create TelevisaUnivision – the world’s leading Spanish-language media and content company. We are proud stewards of a storied and prolific content factory containing the largest Spanish language library of rich and iconic intellectual property. As we look to grow our unparalleled market position and the recent investments in our linear and streaming platforms as well as our news and sports products, Daniel is the right leader at the right time to take the helm. His unique global operational experience working in the U.S., Mexico and Latin America across technology, digital platforms and entertainment honed over three decades is exactly what TelevisaUnivision needs to drive our next phase.”
Mr. Alegre said, “The media landscape is undergoing a profound transformation and TelevisaUnivision is strategically poised to seize new opportunities while staying deeply connected to the communities we serve. The U.S. and Mexico represent the most valuable and populous Spanish-language markets in the world, a demographic that is becoming more prominent both regionally and globally. Building on TelevisaUnivision’s solid foundation, global content pipeline, ongoing investments in cutting-edge technologies, and unmatched reach, we are uniquely positioned to continue serving this vital audience. Wade and the entire TelevisaUnivision team have created a strong multi-platform media business with world-class quality and breadth of entertainment, news and sports programming. I look forward to working with our global teams and partners to build on TelevisaUnivision’s great history and take the Company to new heights.”
“In 2020 Searchlight, ForgeLight and Liberty Global partnered with Grupo Televisa in our acquisition of Univision, setting out to turnaround and transform the legacy business. The success of those efforts paved the way for the merger with Televisa’s content business to create TelevisaUnivision – a business without comparison in the global media landscape today,” said Mr. Davis. “Thanks to the efforts of our exceptional team, TelevisaUnivision has consistently delivered above-market revenue growth, outperformed the U.S. and Mexican advertising markets and launched and have grown our direct-to-consumer business, ViX, to become the largest dedicated Spanish-language streaming service in the world. We could not have picked a better successor than Daniel, who brings an incredible track record of operational and strategic execution. He is the ideal executive to take TelevisaUnivision into its next phase of growth. The Company’s future is bright, and I look forward to supporting Daniel and the TelevisaUnivision team in my role as Vice Chairman of the Board.”
“We, alongside ForgeLight, invested in Univision in 2020 in support of Wade’s vision of a holistic, growth-led turnaround of the business,” said Eric Zinterhofer, Founding Partner, Searchlight Capital Partners, L.P. “The transaction with Televisa was a continuation of that successful vision at a global scale, resulting in an unmatched, vertically integrated Hispanic media business. In coordination with Grupo Televisa, Wade and the management team, we accomplished the integration of TelevisaUnivision as well as the global launch of ViX, completing the multi-year transformation process. There has been longstanding alignment between TelevisaUnivision, Wade, Searchlight and the rest of the Board to effect an organized succession plan to bring in a world-class CEO to lead the Company in this next phase of its trajectory. We are all extremely supportive of Daniel and have full confidence in the Company’s strategy and management team.”
About Daniel Alegre
Daniel Alegre is a seasoned executive with 30 years of global operational-focused leadership experience across technology, digital platforms, e-commerce and entertainment. He currently serves on the Board of FEMSA, one of the leading Latin American global commerce and pharmaceutical retailers and the world’s largest Coca Cola bottler. He also serves on the Board of Cinepolis, the largest movie theater chain in Latin America and one of the largest in the world. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Yuga Labs from 2023 to 2024. Prior to Yuga Labs, Mr. Alegre was Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard from 2020 to 2023, where he was responsible for managing all revenue, game development and leadership teams for the company’s top gaming franchises. Previously, Mr. Alegre spent 16 years at Google in various global leadership roles, including as President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, where he was responsible for developing key strategic relationships and accelerating revenue with partners around the world; President of Shopping and Payments; and President of Asia Pacific and Latin America, where he oversaw the company’s expansion into the two regions.
Mr. Alegre holds a B.A., cum laude, from Princeton University, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is fluent in English, Spanish, French and German.
Forward-Looking Statements / Safe Harbor
Certain statements contained within this press release constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases you can identify forward looking statements by terms such as “anticipate,” “plan,” “may,” “intend,” “will,” “expect,” “believe,” “optimistic” or the negative of these terms, and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward looking statements in this press release include: (1) cancellations, reductions or postponements of advertising or other changes in advertising practices among our advertisers; (2) any impact of adverse economic or political conditions on our industry, business and financial condition, including inflationary pressures, increases in interest rates, decreases in consumer spending, recessionary fears and reduced advertising revenue and volatility and weakness in the capital markets; (3) failure to renew existing carriage agreements or reach new carriage agreements with multichannel video programming distributors (“MVPDs”) on acceptable terms or otherwise and the impact of such failure on pricing terms of, and contractual obligations under, carriage agreements with other MVPDs; (4) changes in the size of the U.S. Hispanic population, including the impact of U.S. federal and state immigration legislation and policies on both the U.S. Hispanic population and persons emigrating from Latin America; (5) failure to continue our content and programming strategy, including for our sports programming and the content we obtain from Grupo Televisa, as well as lack of audience acceptance of our content or varying popularity of programming; (6) competition in the media industry, including effects of consolidation in the cable or satellite MVPD industry; (7) risks and uncertainties related to, and disruptions to our business and operations caused by, the TelevisaUnivision Transaction and the combination of the companies’ content business; (8) failure of our subscription video-on-demand (“SVOD”) or ad-supported video-on-demand (“AVOD”) services as part of our strategy to provide streaming channels and on-demand Spanish-language programming to Hispanic audiences throughout the world; (9) disruption of our business due to network and information systems related events, such as computer system or network breaches, hackings or other security incidents, viruses, or other destructive or disruptive software or activities; (10) failure to protect our intellectual property, including piracy of our programming and other content, or other infringement or violation of our intellectual property rights, (11) the impact of U.S. and Mexican regulations including Federal Communications Commission regulations and other U.S. and Mexican communications laws; (12) risks related to our substantial indebtedness and ability to pay our debt; and (13) other factors that may be set forth in the Forward Looking Statements accompanying our annual audited and interim unaudited financial statements from time to time. Actual results may differ materially due to these risks and uncertainties. The Company undertakes no obligation to modify or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date that the forward-looking statement was made.
About TelevisaUnivision
TelevisaUnivision is the world’s leading Spanish-language media company. Powered by the largest library of owned Spanish-language content and a prolific production capability, TelevisaUnivision is the top producer of original content in Spanish across news, sports and entertainment verticals. This original content powers all of TelevisaUnivision’s platforms, which include market-leading broadcast networks Univision, Las Estrellas, Canal 5 and UniMas, and a portfolio of 38 cable networks, which include TUDN, Galavision, Distrito Comedia and TL Novelas. The Company also operates the leading Mexican movie studio, Videocine, and owns and operates the largest Spanish-language audio platform in the U.S. across 35 terrestrial stations and the Uforia digital platform. TelevisaUnivision is also the owner of ViX, the largest Spanish-language streaming platform in the world. For more information, please visit televisaunivision.com.
Contacts
Betsy Frank, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations
bmillerfrank@televisaunivision.com
Alyssa Bernstein, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications
abernstein@televisaunivision.com