(Recasts headline and lead, adds details on Televisa's performance, analyst quote)
By Julia Love
MEXICO CITY, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Mexican broadcaster Grupo Televisa's third-quarter net profit jumped 9 percent compared with the same period last year, the company said Thursday, the same day its longtime chief executive announced he would step down.
The world's largest producer of Spanish-language media content said its net profit during the July-September period rose to 1.159 billion pesos ($63.8 million), helped by lower expenses.
Televisa reported 1.06 billion pesos in net profit during the same period last year.
But total revenue slipped to 22.8 billion pesos, down 3.8 percent from the year-ago quarter, the company said in a report.
Televisa's advertising revenue fell further, down 8.4 percent during the quarter. The company attributed the drop in part to its three days of commercial-free coverage after the massive earthquake that struck central Mexico on Sept. 19.
Televisa, by far Mexico's dominant broadcaster, has been grappling with a slowdown in ad sales and the rise of popular internet-based streaming services.
Earlier in the day, the company announced that its longtime chief executive officer, Emilio Azcarraga, was stepping down but will remain as chairman of the board.
He will be succeeded by Vice President Alfonso de Angoitia and Chief Financial Officer Bernardo Gomez, who will serve as co-chief executives, Televisa said.
"This change... is an acknowledgement by the board that an important change was necessary, especially in the context of the media industry evolving so quickly," said Carlos de Legarreta, an analyst with brokerage GBM.
"But he has been replaced by two of his closest collaborators, so it remains to be seen the nature of the tangible changes that we will see going forward," he added. (Reporting by Julia Love; Editing by Andrew Hay)