Emilio Azcarraga Jean strikes again; Joe Uva is his latest casualty.

For all those who doubted about who was in charge at Univision after the extension of the Program License Agreement (PLA) last year, the answer should now be crystal clear. While Haim Saban may hold the title of Chairman, Emilio Azcarraga Jean holds the title of Golden Ruler, as in he who holds the gold rules. The gold in this case was the PLA which Broadcast Media Partners BMP (the consortium that owns Univision) wanted desperately to extend beyond 2017. But Emilio was not about to give that extension without first extracting a few demands. Joe Uva’s position was one only of them. So let’s go back in time, and put the story-line into context.

You see, before any progress could be made about extending the PLA, Emilio first wanted Ray Rodriguez out of the way. As President of Univision, Ray had long been a thorn in Emilio’s side, as he felt Ray never gave Televisa the proper respect it deserved for the ratings success that Televisa programming brought to the Univision program grid. Not to mention the fact that Perenchio, who Emilio did not care for much either, also refused to give in to Emilio’s demands.

Saban himself also saw Ray as a much needed Ally, especially after having paid almost 14 billion dollars for Univision and whose purchase came with a lawsuit that challenged the PLA agreement. With that lawsuit hanging over Univision’s future, Saban needed Ray at his side to help him fight off Televisa who was looking to blow up the PLA agreement. As we all now know, Televisa lost that court battle.

The old expression that good things come to those that wait, was a perfect motto for Emilio, as far as he was concerned it would be only a matter of time before Saban came knocking at his door with Ray’s “resignation”. After all, it was Televisa programming that kept Univision’s prime time ratings through the roof. Not to mention the fact that original productions commissioned by Univision, were not only costly, but many of them failed.

With a highly leveraged company and a recession that was tanking ad revenues, Saban was ready to go see Emilio. But first he had to deal with Ray, and so he put together a great severance package along with a great send-off party; Ray was gone.

From various accounts of individuals who were involved in those early meetings to discuss the PLA extension to 2025, it was very clear that Emilio wanted more than just equity and better terms for the PLA, he wanted the opportunity to show that his team could run the Univision network much more effective and efficiently. While Saban was hesitant to accept, he was in no position to negotiate.

First up was the Univision news division, which is now headed up by long time Televisa/Azcarraga confidant Isaac Lee. Out was 25 year Univision veteran and Ray Rodriguez protégé Alina Falcon, and in the weeks following Lee’s arrival, out were most of Alina’s senior lieutenants.

Which brings us to Joe Uva, if Joe’s contract was going to be renewed it would have happened months ago, but as we all know, it is less costly when someone resigns as opposed to letting them go. Reality is that Emilo had been in Saban’s ear about Uva since day one, so this to, has now come to pass.

The next few weeks will be telling as Univision decides what to do with their AM radio platform, who gets named to head the radio group and who replaces Uva. One thing you can bet on, the cost cutting that was forced on the radio and television station groups but that Joe never imposed on the network, will now get started as Emilio is not one to continue to put up with the bloated network cost structure.

The fact that he spent a lot of time in New York last week visiting the Univision headquarters shows me he is very engaged and very focused.

Stay tuned.

Jose Cancela is Principal of Hispanic USA Inc, a Hispanic Market Communications firm. He has also the author of The Power of Business en Español, Seven Fundamental Keys to Unlocking the Potential of the Spanish Language Hispanic Market Rayo / HarperCollins.