GRUPO TELEVISA, the world’s largest Spanish-language broadcaster, said second-quarter profit fell 16 per cent as it wrote down the value of a stake in Mexican mobile-phone operator Grupo Iusacell SA.

Net income slid to 1.4 billion pesos (€85.9 million), from 1.66 billion pesos (€101.9 million) a year earlier, Televisa said in a filing to Mexico’s stock exchange yesterday.

Sales rose 12 per cent to 17 billion pesos, while Televisa recorded financial costs of 945 million pesos in the quarter, double last year’s total, mostly for a reduction in the value of its $1.6 billion investment in Iusacell, Mexico’s third-largest wireless carrier.

The broadcaster, based in Mexico City, acquired a 50 per cent stake in the mobile-phone company last month. Advertising for Televisa’s over-the-air channels fell 0.1 per cent from a year earlier to 5.57 billion pesos as a Mexican law banned government advertising before the nation’s presidential elections on July 1st. Televisa has been turning to its pay-TV businesses for growth.

The company added 267,090 satellite TV subscribers for a total of 4.55 million. – (Bloomberg)