Lions Gate, Televisa May Team Up

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Grupo Televisa, Mexico’s largest media conglomerate, plans to expand its reach in the U.S. by teaming up with an American studio to make movies and television shows and to distribute its growing film library, the Los Angeles Times reports.


Televisa signed a partnership agreement last week with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., an independent studio known for horror franchises such as “Saw,” according to people close to the arrangement who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the record.


It is unclear when the two partners will announce the deal, although Televisa’s chief executive, Emilio Azcarraga, was scheduled to mention the partnership today during his keynote address at an entertainment industry conference in France.


The initiative is almost certain to inflame tensions with Televisa’s current U.S. partner, Univision Communications Inc., the nation’s largest Spanish-language broadcaster. Univision has an exclusive agreement to distribute Televisa’s Spanish-language programming in the U.S. through 2017. Univision relies on Televisa for a steady stream of programming and sports, including its popular telenovelas that drive the U.S. broadcaster’s prime-time ratings.


The new partnership between Televisa and Lions Gate would give both companies access to market segments they have been trying for years to penetrate. Although Televisa dominates the Mexican media landscape with its television, radio and publishing content, it has not had much success in expanding into film-making or English-language television in the U.S.


Read the full L.A. Times story

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