About a year after scrapping plans for an initial public offering and hiring a new CEO, Spanish-language broadcaster Univision said it has hired investment bankers Morgan Stanley, Moelis & Co. and LionTree to advise it in determining its strategic options, including a possible sale.

“After a successful year under the leadership of our new management team, including a complete refocus on our core Spanish-language media business, it is abundantly clear that Univision’s strategic value has never been greater,” Univision’s board said in a press release, adding that it wants to capitalize on its leadership position in the growing Hispanic media market. “As the last major independent broadcast media company in the U.S., a market where scale and strength matter, Univision has the fundamentals for continued growth on its own or with a partner – and after careful consideration, the Board and management team have concluded the time is right to explore strategic options.”

The decision comes about a year after the broadcaster hired former Media General CEO Vincent Sadusky to run the operation after CEO Randy Falco resigned. Falco’s departure was one of a series of changes at the company that began in March 2018, when it decided to abandon a plan for an IPO and chief financial officer Francisco Lopez-Balboa stepped down.  In subsequent months, several top executives, including former chief revenue officer Tonia O’Connor and chief content officer Isaac Lee, left the company for other opportunities. Univision shed some assets -- it sold its online unit Gizmodo Group to Great Hill Partners in April  -- and endured some layoffs last July. 

Sadusky was hired in June 2018 and immediately set out to beef up the management team and refocus the broadcaster by investing heavily in news and sports programming. Now, a year in Sadusky’s plan seems to be paying off -- Univision says it is often the top rated news program in any language in several of its markets -- the time may be right to test the sale waters again.

“Over the past year, Univision has gained momentum as it has divested non-core assets; strengthened programming; secured long-term distribution deals and valuable sports rights; increased investment in news, sports, local, and digital offerings; and materially strengthened its balance sheet,” Sadusky said in a statement. “The current environment favors scale and cross-platform offerings, and we believe those major media companies that fail to recognize and capitalize on this unique opportunity in Spanish-language media will be left behind.”

Univision was taken private by a group of investors including Saban Capital Group, Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, TPG and Thomas H. Lee Partners in a leveraged buyout worth about $13.7 billion in 2006. It reportedly turned down an offer in 2017 from Liberty Media’s John Malone that would have valued the company at $13.5-to-$15 billion. The IPO was expected to raise about $1 billion but would have valued the company at about $20 billion.

In a press release, Univision said there are no assurances as to the timing or outcome of the review and that it does not intend to comment until the review is complete. 

With its retransmission consent battle with Dish Network in its second month and in light of comments by the satellite company’s chairman Charlie Ergen that its blackout of the channel is “probably permanent,” Univision CEO Vincent Sadusky said the broadcaster is ready to use the full power of its networks to encourage viewers to switch providers.

Univision went dark to Dish subscribers on June 30. In a conference call with analysts to discuss Q2 results last week, Ergen said the blackout with Univison was “probably permanent.”

In Univision’s own conference call with analysts on Thursday, newly minted CEO Sadusky said that he was taking Ergen’s comments at “face value.”

“It feels like they are pretty well dug-in,” Sadusky said of Dish. “We take their comments at face value. So far, we haven’t really promoted and utilized the full strength of all of our networks to convert their subscribers to other providers. But we are fully prepared to do that.”

Sadusky wouldn’t say how Univision would go about that. But the programmer owns more than 62 television stations across the country and has cable networks like, Galavision, El Rey Network, Univision Deportes and others. Univision also has a direct-to-consumer offering priced at $7.99 per month.

That DTC offering was a bone of contention with Dish – Ergen mentioned on his call that Univision was charging the satellite company more than the price of the DTC product. Dish had also argued that Univision has been declining in the ratings, while the broadcaster claimed it is the third most watched network by Dish customers.

Dish has about 13 million customers across the country and offers Univision’s cable networks as part of its ethnic packages. Just what impact the blackout has had directly on the company is unclear, but revenue dropped 2% to $749.8 million and ad sales dipped 7.3% to $434 million in Q2.

At Univision’s Media Networks group, which excludes its radio stations, operating income was down 8.7% to $306 million and revenue fell 1.9% to $685.1 million. Advertising revenue was down 7.9% to $372 million.

Sadusky estimated that Univision networks account for “well over” 1 million Dish Latino customers, and even more to non-Latino Dish packages. He added that Univision has received “north of 100,000 phone calls” from customers concerning the blackout.

Sadusky added that Univision has seen a significant uptick in the number of customers to its DTC offering, UnivisionNow, adding that many of them may be signing up on a temporary basis hoping the retrans fight will work itself out.

Sadusky said that despite Dish's claims that Univision is asking for an outrageous rate increase, the deal between the two is old and needs to reflect the current impact of the channels.

"Up to now, we've really tried to work with Dish and have them simply recognize that our deal is old and we're not asking them to do anything outrageous in terms of being an outlier with our per sub fee based upon the audience we deliver," Sadusky said.

“Going forward we are ready to change our messaging and let our people know, as Dish has said, this could be long term, this could be permanent, So it benefits us to move those subscribers over as quickly as possible to alternative services, either to our OTT service or other services in the marketplace,” Sadusky continued. “The general consensus among consumers, any research survey I've seen, usually when they list out from favorite to least favorite monthly vendors, typically it is the pay TV providers that are really challenged. I think when we change our messaging, we will move people over as quickly as possible so that we can minimize the negative impact of subscriber fee loss from Dish directly and to a lesser extent advertising dollars.”  

Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications said it has named former Media General chief Vincent Sadusky as its new CEO, replacing Randy Falco, who has already announced his intention to retire from the post. Sadusky will assume his new position on June 1.

Speculation that Sadusky, who will also become a member of Univision’s board of directors, was being considered for the job has been heavy for days. 

Falco will remain an advisor to Univision through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition.

Sadusky served as CEO of Media General from 2014 to 2017, when it was sold to Nexstar Broadcast Group. Prior to Media General, Sadusky was CEO of LIN Broadcasting and has also held several executive positons with Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, including chief financial officer and treasurer.

“Vince is distinctly qualified to lead UCI through the next phase of its growth, given his impressive track record of leadership, vision, deep industry experience and relationships,” Univision chairman Haim Saban said in a statement. “This is a unique moment for UCI, and we believe that we have the right strategy and team in place to execute on the opportunities in front of us. On behalf of the entire Board, we look forward to working with Vince to achieve great success for UCI.”

Falco has spent the past eight years as Univision CEO, a tenure he said in a statement “has been one of the most personally and professionally rewarding experiences of my life.”

Saban praised the CEO for his leadership.

“Over the last eight years, Randy has led the transformation of UCI into a modern media organization with a diverse portfolio of assets, sterling brands and content that audiences and marketers want, backed by strong earnings growth, a significantly improved balance sheet and a team of motivated and purpose-driven employees,” Saban said in a statement. “Randy has always recognized and embraced Univision as an incredibly unique company with a mission and vision that goes well beyond traditional media. On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Randy for his leadership, commitment and partnership, and congratulate him on his retirement.”