MEXICO CITY, April 25 (Reuters) - Mexico's largest broadcaster Televisa reversed losses in the first quarter, swinging to a profit after a favorable exchange rate and smaller debt burden helped cut financial expenses by nearly half, the company said on Thursday.
Net profit reached 951.8 million pesos ($57.6 million) in the January-to-March period, from the 788.9 million peso loss in the same quarter last year, Televisa reported in a filing to Mexico's stock exchange.
The broadcaster is the world's largest producer of Spanish-language content.
During the quarter, company revenue fell about 5% from the year before to total 15.95 billion pesos, but below the 16.87 billion pesos expected by analysts polled by LSEG.
The overall revenue slide was principally due to a 12% drop in revenues from its satellite TV unit Sky Mexico.
The quarterly profit stemmed from cutting financial expenses by 1.02 billion pesos, a 47% year-on-year reduction, helped by lower debt loads after early payments last year and a favorable exchange rate fluctuation, according to the filing.
The company also pointed to currency gains of nearly $690 million during the quarter, as it said the Mexican peso strengthened 2.3% against the U.S. dollar in the January-to-March period versus 7.4% in the same period last year.
Sky reported 250,600 disconnections in the quarter, while Televisa's cable segment recorded nearly 28,000 new subscribers, mostly broadband and mobile customers.
At the end of March, Televisa's consolidated net debt stood at 57.5 billion pesos, compared to 60.7 billion pesos at the end of 2023.
Earlier this month, the broadcaster sealed deals worth over $1 billion aimed at refinancing existing debt, in addition to announcing it had reached an agreement with AT&T for its stake Sky, giving Televisa full control of the satellite TV firm.
($1 = 16.5310 Mexican pesos at end-March) (Reporting by Brendan O'Boyle and Marion Giraldo; Editing by Sarah Morland and Diane Craft)
