Cannes – Emilio Azcárraga Jean, Chairman of the board and CEO of Grupo Televisa, has accepted this year’s MIPCOM Personality of the Year award. Under him, Grupo Televisa has doubled its operating margin and garnered more than 70% of the Mexican Broadcast TV market.
In his keynote speech, Azcárraga Jean explained how Televisa achieved this. “In the last five years, in addition to selling our finished content all over the world, we’ve made foreign co-productions a top priority with hits in Asia, Europe and Latin America. We have fine-tuned our engaging formats to local needs and tastes. The outcome is always a product that is distinctly different and yet loyal to the original.”
He added that in the five years since he spoke at MIPCOM, Televisa has improved its knack for sharing its stories around the world. “Our goal is to make truly powerful and global formats because melodrama is by nature, global and universal.”
Televisa has also embraced the age of multi-screens. “Our content is embracing the new multi-platform and transmedia era,” said Azcárraga Jean. “We were a multimedia company before the concept even existed. We want to stay at the frontlines of the entertainment business and be the best possible partner.”
He also extolled the continued relevance of the telenovela format. “Stories have to keep viewers on a ledge, surprise them, keep them asking what will happen next. Perhaps that is why telenovelas are the only TV genre — since its origins over 50 years ago — that has never decreased its ratings,” he said.
During the Q&A session that immediately followed his keynote address, World Screen Editor Anna Carugati asked Azcárraga Jean if he is worried about new entrants like Netflix and Hulu. “They’re distributors. If you have good content, you have a very good alliance with the distributors,” he replied. “I don’t know which device is gonna be there in the future. But at the end of the day the person will want their entertainment whenever they want and wherever they want. We need to be prepared to deliver that.”
