Mexico's Televisa says Q2 profit rises 6.6 pct

Mexico's Televisa, one of the world's biggest producers of Spanish-language content, on Tuesday reported a 6.6 percent rise in its second-quarter profit, mostly driven by its fast-growing cable television business.

The broadcaster said profit in the April-to-June period was 1.416 billion pesos (US$77.6 million), up from 1.329 billion pesos in the quarter a year earlier.

In the second quarter, operating income in the cable division increased 19.2 percent to 3.294 billion pesos.

Revenue for the period rose 12.1 percent to 23.524 billion pesos, with satellite sales jumping 18.1 percent, their biggest increase since 2012, Televisa said.

The firm is in the midst of a restructuring of its advertising business as viewers switch from free-to-air channels to watch content on other platforms such as pay TV and online.

Sales of advertising in its content division were up 2.1 percent in the quarter.

Televisa narrowly avoided the imposition of tougher regulations for its pay TV arm in October, despite having a more than 70-percent share of satellite TV customers in Mexico and over 50 percent of the cable TV audience.