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Is Emilio Azcarraga Jean set to become the king of media in the Americas?

The looming IPO of U.S. Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications Univision Communications has put the focus on a consortium of private equity firms that could be in for a big payday, but the person probably best set up to profit from it is Emilio Azcarraga Jean, the billionaire who controls Televisa. While regulations barring foreign ownership of media assets has limited his control over Televisa, Azcarrga Jean controls nearly 40% of Univision taking into account direct and indirect ownership. Hes also one of the broadcasters main providers of contents, earning his Mexico-based Televisa rich fees which could increase in tandem with the ever-growing Latino population of the United States. Soon enough, Azcarraga Jean could become the king of Spanish media in the U.S. And the way things are going, simply, the king of all media.

Univision hired a group of banks including some Wall Street heavyweights to explore a public offering expected for the second half of 2015 which aims to raise more than $1 billion at a $20 billion valuation that includes debt, a report by Reuters revealed on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank will be responsible for the IPO of Univision, which according to Moodys generated $2.9 billion in sales last year.

Univision Communications Univision Communications is one of the countrys largest broadcasters, sometimes beating English-language giants like ABC, CBS CBS, NBC, and Fox Fox during primetime, according to the FT. And the future looks even rosier: according to U.S. Census Bureau, there were roughly 54 million Hispanics living in the U.S. in 2013, or 17% of the total population. That figure is set to rise to 128.8 million by 2060, they estimate, or about 31%.

Univision is right there to profit from it. According to Fitch Ratings, Univision benefits from a premier industry position, with duopoly television and radio stations in most of the top Hispanic markets, with a national overlay of broadcast and cable networks. They indicate Univisions EBITDA margin is between 38% and 40%, which translates to as much as $1.16 billion.

That puts Azcarraga Jeans Televisa in a position to continue to make bank from the U.S. Their latest annual report, for 2013, shows they made at least 5.15% of their revenue from Univision, where they reveal they control 38% of the company. As I wrote in 2010, the deal inked by Azcarraga Jean and Univisions management only increased the U.S. companys reliance on the self-proclaimed largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world, feeding more of Televisas soap operas and other programs into Univisions platforms. It also cleared up some legal issues pertaining to digital distribution, which is expected to continue growing as more and more users access content through smartphones and tablets; today, Univision derives 5% of their revenues from digital.

Azcarraga Jean had actually tried to buy Univision in 2006, but was outbid by a group led by Saban Capital along with Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity, Thomas H. Lee Partners, and TPG Capital, which took it private for $12.3 billion. As is the norm, they loaded the company up with debt, which stood at $10.5 billion by the end of 2014.

Univisions IPO could be one of the largest media offerings in the past several years, and it could help make the private equity consortium, along with Azcarraga Jean (collectively Broadcast Media Partners) very rich returns on their investment. The real opportunity, though, is for the Mexican billionaire, who could use the capital to double-down on the U.S. which could soon become the largest Spanish-speaking market in the world. If demographic trends prove to be true, it could also give Azcarraga Jean a stranglehold on Spanish-language media cross the continent, making him the media king of the Americas, from Alaska to Argentina.

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Univision's IPO Could Make Mexican Billionaire Emilio Azcarraga Jean The King Of American Media

Media Control and Power Remix
BIS 233 final project.

By: Veronika Zaporojhets

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Media Control and Power Remix - Video

The "Media Industries Transparency Initiative" (MITI) aims to foster openness and accountability in news businesses. It also aims to establish standards for transparency and information disclosure in the media sector in order to boost the public trust and acceptance among stakeholders.

MITI is the first initiative under the Partnership Against Corruption for Thailand (PACT) network designed to expand anti-corruption practices throughout the supply chain of a specific industry.

The Thaipat Institute, an organisation dedicated to corporate responsibility, will be a convenor for the PACT, while NMG will be the media partner of the network.

Pipat Yodprudtikan, director of the Thaipat Institute, said the PACT network began its mission with the creation of an action-oriented platform. To be in line with internationally recognised principles and guidelines, the platform is designed to facilitate the implementation of anti-graft policies and measures in industry-specif?ic targets.

"The launch of the PACT network will be a major milestone in fighting against corruption in Thailand," he said, noting that opposing corruption had been made a hot issue by Thai society and put on the national agenda.

"We need to lay down a strong infrastructure at this moment to ensure that such anti-corruption practices will be successful," he said.

Pipat said the PACT network brought together business organisations and associations from various fields, including the media, retail, insurance and service industries, such as the financial and banking sectors, through their shared goal of combating corruption.

Under this network, they will pursue action-oriented guidelines and measures, from declaring their commitment to fight graft, to formulating anti-corruption mechanisms and processes in their organisations before expanding such practices further to their business partners and those within their supply chain.

"In the media industry, the border between editorial and business becomes blurred. It also allows investment groups to take control over the management of a media organisation and to have a certain level of impact on editorial work," Pipat said.

All listed companies and business organisations are welcome to join the PACT network. More information, including a how-to manual on "Anti-Corruption in Practice" launched by the Thaipat Institute, is available at http://www.pact.network.

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NMG, Thaipat Institute jointly launch media transparency initiative

Milwaukee's Summerfest music festival draws an audience of about 900,000 people a year. But now it's looking to expand its audience to people watching away from the crowds and on their couches.

Summerfest has partnered with the Los Angeles company Live Media Group to live-stream the festival on the Web so that viewers at home can see headliners such as Kings of Leon, Linkin Park and Florida Georgia Line perform.

Music festivals have previously been available to online viewers through platforms such as YouTube and Ustream. But Live Media Group -- which does the behind-the-scenes work on streamed events -- is hoping music fans will flock to the see the shows through its app, with "grid view" technology that allows users to preview videos of multiple performancesand choose which one to watch.

"The frustration was that, with music festivals, you've got four stages going on at once," said LMG Chief Executive Brad Sexton, who founded the company in 2008. "The festivals and users wanted user control and multiple feedsthroughout the experience."

This isn't the first time the company -- headquarteredin Van Nuys with 23 full-time employees -- has been involved in the live music space. It has also produced the live streams for Live Nation and Yahoo's yearlong concert series, with one show every day.

The shows in the 365 series included concertsby the likes of Aerosmith, Usher and Lady Gaga, though the companies have not said how many people watched the concerts.

To broadcast the shows, the company employs a crew of freelancers to do the camera and audio work. Producing the live stream for Summerfest will require 18 to 22 TV cameras, LMG said.

LMG started as a production company working with Hollywood movie studios on their film events.Recently, it worked on the live stream of the Independent Spirit Awards red carpet and the "Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 1" premiere.

It has also done previous work on music festivals including New Orleans Jazz Fest and Tortuga Music Festival.

Follow Ryan Faughnder on Twitter for more entertainment business coverage: @rfaughnder

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Los Angeles company Live Media Group helps bring concerts to the Web

Image: CNN/Alex Wellen

By Jason Abbruzzese2015-03-10 00:05:25 UTC

If you buy an Apple Watch, National Public Radio, CNN, The New York Times and ESPN hope to get a little bit more of your time.

Wearables have been seen as a a bit of a conundrum for media organizations. They're a new form of media distribution but the amount of information you can distribute is extremely limited.

This has left media companies looking for ways to provide users with information in smaller, personalized doses that can then be elaborated upon by request. That translates to a focus on notifications and personalization for CNN's new app., said CNN Chief Product Officer Alex Wellen. "When you design something, it's about looking at the canvas you have," he said. "We knew that there was nothing more personal, as Tim Cook said, than a device that's right up against your skin."

CNN's app allows users to personalize 12 categories that control what news and notifications appear on the watch. The app is also meant to be a gateway to CNN's content online and on television. Users will be able to explore news topics that start as a watch notification and continue onto their smartphones for richer content like live video, Wellen said.

It would seem that for now no organization is publishing full stories to the watch, opting instead for short snippets. The New York Times noted in its app description that Apple Watch users will be able to scroll through photos and a lead-in to each story. Each app appears to want to drive users to their smartphones for longer text and video.

Ryan Spoon, ESPN's head of product development, echoed Wellen's thoughts. The company's app will also prominently feature notifications and personalization, he said.

This is not new territory for ESPN. The sports media giant already sends billions of notifications a month, Spoon noted, and features personalization in its apps that allow users to quickly access scores of their favorite teams.

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Media on the Apple Watch: Personalization, notifications and intimacy