Media/Entertainment
Univision Up on Upgrade
Sandy Brown
12/28/05 - 12:44 PM EST
A stock analyst at Standard & Poor's upgraded Spanish language broadcaster Univision(UVN Quote - Cramer on UVN - Stock Picks) on the heels of the company's inclusion in the Nielsen National Television Index.
Univision's programming used to be measured in the less-prominent Nielsen Hispanic Television Index. Moving to the Nielsen National Television index will allow the ranking of its programming alongside large broadcasters such as Disney's(DIS Quote - Cramer on DIS - Stock Picks) ABC, News Corp.'s(NWS Quote - Cramer on NWS - Stock Picks) Fox, Viacom's(VIA Quote - Cramer on VIA - Stock Picks) CBS, and General Electric's(GE Quote - Cramer on GE - Stock Picks) NBC. The company will move from its less prominent ratings measurement system on Nielsen's Hispanic Television Index.
S&P analyst Tuna Amobi upgraded the Los Angeles, company to strong buy from buy and raised S&P's target price $3 to $38.
"We believe last week's long-anticipated deal to include Univision in Nielsen's National Television Index bodes well for improved long-term visibility of the company's national ratings among advertisers," Amobi wrote. "We think migration to full Nielsen's National TV Index starting in 2007 should help it chip away at big audience-to-revenue gap compared with English-language networks."
On top of those factors, the ever-popular soccer World Cup will occur in Germany in spring/summer of next year, with Univision holding Spanish-language rights. Amobi says the World Cup should provide a near-term ratings boost.
Univision stock was trading up 17 cents to $30.03 on Wednesday.