Univision’s board has approved a sale of the network to Texas Pacific Group, and not Televisa, as had been speculated.
Why You Should Care: Univision also owns Telefutura and Galavision. Televisa supplies a lot of programming to both networks, including lucha libre. There was some thought (from Dave Meltzer, but seemingly pointed out to him by other sources) that if Televisa were to buy Univision, it’d lead to lucha being on that over-the-air network.
The opposite happened, and just reading that news, Televisa sounds quite unhappy. It also sounds like this isn’t yet a done deal, so it’s too soon for definite statements about what will happen. However, it’s not too soon to speculate on what could happen.
5 completely baseless guesses
#1: Televisa continues selling programs to Universion, though they’re resentful and bitter and there are occasinonal problems; lucha is slightly affected
#2: Televisa dramatically reduces the amount of programming it shares; lucha disappears from the US except for CAN52.
#3: Televisa pulls out completly from Univision. Not only is lucha toast, but if they pulled enough shows out, Galavision and Telefutura probably both wouldn’t survive; you can only rerun things so many times.
#4: Televisa pulls out from Univision and reaches a deal with Telemundo. Lucha may show up on over-the-air or may not be included.
#5: Televisa pulls out completely from Univision – and goes it themselves in the US, running a version of one (or all) of it’s Mexico TV channels on US Digital Cable. (If CAN52 can do it…) Even one Televisa digital channel would probably mean both lucha shows, and up to date airings at that.
I truly have no idea how this will turn out, but I’ll point out the #4 guess sounds great, but probably would take a while to happen. And that’s the key – the effect of this sale won’t be felt for a while. This sale will change things, but I wouldn’t expect any changes any time soon.
This article @ Marketing Medios has some similiar thoughts about where Televisa goes from here.
