Outspoken Republican residential candidate/billionaire real-estate developer/reality TV star Donald Trump is keeping Spanish-language broadcaster Univision in the headlines, but behind the scenes, the company is focusing on its initial public offering due this fall, reports The New York Times.

Over the summer, Trump has had a couple of well-documented run-ins with Univision. Most recently, Trump had his personal security guards escort popular Univision anchor Jorge Ramos out of a news conference when Ramos tried to ask a question about immigration. Earlier, Univision bailed on its plan to air the Miss USA pageant, of which Trump is a part owner via the Miss Universe Organization, causing Trump to sue the network for $500 million.

But more fundamental to Univision’s business is the current state of television, which is finally being seriously disrupted, like music and newspapers before it, by the arrival of digital media and streaming on-demand services. Univision serves an increasingly growing percentage of the population, U.S. Latinos, and in the recent past was frequently beating the major broadcast networks in Hispanic-heavy markets such as Los Angeles and Houston.

But like all of media, competition has grown fierce among Latino media providers, which includes NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo. Mainstream broadcast and cable networks also have realized that they ignore the Hispanic audience at their peril and are programming more shows to appeal to that demographic.

All of those issues have some Wall Street analysts questioning the timing of the IPO’s launch, reports the Times. And they aren’t just questioning Univision, but big media in general.

“The challenges facing TV-based media companies are growing by the day, with the lack of visibility increasingly concerning investors and making valuations difficult,” Rich Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG Research told the Times. “The question is: Can anybody flourish as the media tide goes out?”

Univision was bought by a group of private equity investors in 2007 for $13.7 billion. Last year, Univision reportedly made the rounds in an attempt to sell, but its $20 billion price tag, nearly half of which was debt, proved to be a turnoff to potential buyers.

Read more at The New York Times

Brief Take: Media business fundamentals are perhaps at their most challenging, but this is a great time for U.S. Hispanics, who, with their growing numbers, are becoming demographic darlings.

Image courtesy of the Chicago Tribune

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