Univision Act Irks Televisa

Univision Communications Inc.’s second-biggest shareholder, Grupo Televisa, called on the company Wednesday to improve corporate governance after objecting to Univision’s promotion of Ray Rodriguez to president two weeks ago.

Grupo Televisa of Mexico opposed the decision by Univision Chairman A. Jerrold Perenchio, the controlling shareholder, to promote Rodriguez without consulting other investors, according to Alfonso de Angoitia, Televisa’s executive vice president and a Univision board member.

“We wanted to establish a process, a more institutional process, and not only to look at one candidate, but to be able to look at many others, and to be sure for the benefit of all the shareholders of Univision that we were selecting the right guy for the job,” said De Angoitia.

Televisa, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster, has a 10.8% stake in Univision and an agreement through 2017 to provide Univision with more than a third of its programming.

Rodriguez, who also took the chief operating officer title at Univision, previously led the cable network at the Los Angeles-based company.

Univision paid Mexico City-based Televisa $105 million in 2004 under the contract after an “unexpected and very disappointing slowdown” in Univision royalties during the second half of the year, De Angoitia said.