But the company’s performance forecast and strategy have changed. Wade Davis, CEO of ViX He recognized that the implementation of two separate brands has also resulted in a confusion in the imagination of the audiences, something that “ended up being costly for us.”
“We always knew that this strategy [dos modelos de suscripción] it would also bring some operational complexity that we would have to work on,” said the manager on a call with analysts regarding the results of the first quarter of 2023.
To eliminate consumer confusion, the company has decided to change tack: the ViX+ brand will disappear, and, instead, ViX will conglomerate the free and the premium part; that is, if users want to consume exclusive content that was previously hosted by the premium version, they must pay.
Part of the paid content that is hosted on ViX+ is in the sports segment, such as the mx league and other sports tournaments, which have driven up to 30% of new subscriptions. For this reason, the company will increase its soccer offer.
“With this adjustment we are retooling marketing and will relaunch [la plataforma] with a strategy of a single brandDavis says.
Amazon Prime is one of the platforms streaming that operate under the modality that ViX is looking for. Users who have a subscription can consume the content they want, but to access the Premium they must pay an extra.
The streaming like Netflix, Disney + and HBO Max itself, which also plans its free versions, decided to host the new modality on the same platform, to avoid confusion within the audience.
Negative effect?
ViX’s new move to consolidate its brand in the streaming It will affect its growth for a while. Alfonso de Angoitia Noriega, executive co-president of Grupo Televisa, said that the change they will make to the platform will now require more time for user addition and monetization to the company.
The company will have to pay extra expenses to relaunch the ViX brand, although the streaming CEO believes that this can be offset by the sale of advertising in both Mexico and the United States, and it is even expected that the subscription will be stopped for up to two months Of customers.
The company TelevisaUnivision is in search of profitability and consolidation of the television market. streaming. In the first quarter of this year, it reported income of 1,010 million dollars, which means an increase of 6% thanks to the advertising that the company has managed to place, especially in Mexico, whose performance grew 14%, while in the United States it had an increase of 2%, coupled with the subscriptions reported in the Premium version of ViX.
However, its adjusted EBITDA fell 10%, reaching 361 million dollars compared to the 401.6 million it obtained in the same period last year. According to ViX’s financial report, the drop is associated with operating expenses for original content, sports broadcasting rights, marketing and technology.