Shares of Grupo Televisa jumped to $2.22, up 6.04%, after the Mexican media conglomerate reported a surprise return to profitability in the third quarter, beating analyst earnings estimates even as revenue continued to slide. The results pose a sharp question for investors: is Televisa genuinely turning a corner, or is cost-cutting masking a business that keeps getting smaller? Televisa Swings to Profit and Beats Estimates — But With Revenue Shrinking, Is a $2 Billion Wireless Bet the Right Fix?
Shares of Grupo Televisa climbed 6% to $2.22 after the Mexican media-and-telecom conglomerate posted a surprise return to quarterly profit, raising a pointed question: can cost discipline and a blockbuster acquisition compensate for a business that is steadily losing subscribers and sales?
A $49 Million Profit Replaces a $103 Million Loss — Mostly Thanks to Taxes and Costs, Not Growth
Televisa posted Q3 net income of Ps. 882.7 million (~$49 million), compared with a loss of Ps. 1.93 billion a year earlier.
Earnings came in at 9 cents per share, tripling the 3-cent consensus estimate from Zacks. Yet revenue fell 3.8% to Ps. 14,077.7 million , meaning the profit swing was driven by lower expenses and favorable tax treatment — not by selling more. Investors cheered the bottom line, but the top line tells a different story.
Satellite TV Is in Free Fall, and Video Subscribers Keep Walking Away
Revenue from Televisa's Sky satellite segment dropped 25.5% year over year because of a smaller subscriber base.
The company lost 48,000 video subscribers in the quarter, an acceleration from its four-quarter average of 34,000 losses. Cord-cutting across Latin America is structural, not cyclical — and Televisa's legacy pay-TV cash machine is fading fast.
The AT&T Mexico Deal Is a Giant Strategic Pivot — With Manageable Risk, on Paper
Televisa and partner Fintech Holdings agreed to buy AT&T's Mexican wireless business for $2 billion through a 50-50 joint venture, which would lift Televisa's total telecom market share to roughly 23%.
Each partner will contribute $400 million in equity, with a $1.2 billion non-recourse loan funding the rest.
Management says net debt-to-EBITDA — a measure of how much debt the company carries relative to its earnings — will rise only modestly, from 1.6× to 1.9×.
Scotiabank analysts project the deal will more than double Televisa's fixed-plus-wireless subscriber share from 8% to about 19% , positioning it as the strongest challenger to Carlos Slim's América Móvil. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.
Margins Are Expanding, but Management Itself Says Don't Expect More
The telecom segment's operating margin hit 42.6%, up 380 basis points year over year — Televisa's best in three years.
Yet executives cautioned they do not expect further expansion from that level , suggesting the easy efficiency gains have been captured. For a stock trading near historic lows, the question is whether wireless scale can reignite revenue growth before satellite losses swallow the savings.