TV Azteca

Azteca S.A. de C.V.

Type	Sociedad Anónima de Capital Variable
Country	Mexico
Availability	National; also distributed in the United States (through Azteca América) and certain other North American countries
Revenue	US$ 935.0 million (2010)
Net income	US$ 187.5 million (2010)
Parent	Grupo Salinas
Key people	Mario San Román (CEO)
Launch date	1968
Former names	Imevisión (1968—1993)
Official website	www.tvazteca.com/

Azteca (BMV: TVAZTCA) is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. As of 2011, it competes in Mexico with Televisa. It operates two television networks, Azteca 7 and Azteca Trece in Mexico with repeaters and affiliate stations in most major and minor cities.

History

Azteca was founded on July 18, 1993. When two of three networks and all repeater stations owned by Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión were auctioned off by the Mexican government. Imevisión also owned the channel 22 of the Mexican Federal District, it was not included at the privatization package by popular demand of intellectuals and was delivered to Conaculta.

On July 18, 1993, the Mexico's Finance Ministry, Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP) announced that Radiotelevisora del Centro, a group controlled by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, was the winner of the auction process to acquire the "state-owned media package". The winning bid amounted to US$645 million. Other bidders included Grupo Cosmovision, a joint venture between different radio companies of Mexico (led by Grupo Radiorama), came in a distant second place with its US$495 million bid and Grupo Medcom, affiliated to Grupo Radio Red and controlled at the time by Clemente Serna Alvear and came in third with its US$454 million bid.

On March 7, 2011, TV Azteca changed the name to Azteca, for the subdivision simplification.

Broadcast television networks

In Mexico, TV Azteca operates two networks: Azteca 7 and Azteca Trece. Both have had near-national coverage, mostly via over the air TV, cable TV, DBS, and FTA. Both networks are available in HDTV. Azteca 13 can also be seen live online via Azteca's website. Both Azteca 7 and Azteca Trece were established in 1983 as the state-owned Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión ("Imevisión"), a holding of the national TV networks Canal 13 (1968, state-owned since 1972) and Canal 7. In 1993, they were both privatized under their current name, and now it is part of Grupo Salinas. Its flagship program is the newscast Hechos. TV Azteca also operates Azteca 13 Internacional, reaching 13 countries in Central and South America. TV Azteca operates part of the Azteca América network in the United States.

Controversies

Financial improprieties allegations

Main article: Ricardo Salinas Pliego

On 5 January 2005, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused TV Azteca executives (including chairman Ricardo Salinas Pliego) of having personally profited from a multi-million-dollar debt fraud committed by TV Azteca and another company in which they held stock. The charges were among the first brought under the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, introduced in the wake of the corporate financial scandals of that year.

Legal and commercial problems with TVM

Main article: XHTVM-TV

TV Azteca has an unresolved ownership dispute with the original owners of Mexico City's XHTVM-TV, (flagship station of the pay tv network Proyecto 40). In 1998, TV Azteca had a commercial alliance with Javier Moreno Valle, who had serious financial problems with his channel, Televisora del Valle de México (TVM). The contract was to sell spots and advertising in TVM of TV Azteca's sponsors while TV Azteca used half of the air time with their own programming. TV Azteca invested 25 million dollars for restructuring TVM and accommodating of Azteca's Hi-TV technology (13 additional subchannels from the three Azteca operated stations in Mexico City) in TVM's installations in Cerro del Chiquihuite in Mexico City as part of the contract. TVM later stopped transmitting TV Azteca programming because the company was losing money. TV Azteca took over the station with armed security guards and later accused TVM of breaching their contract and won their case.

Federal Radio and Television Law

Main article: Ley Televisa

Federal Radio and Television Law, a bill concerning the licensing and regulation of the electromagnetic spectrum. The LFRT was favourable to both TV Azteca and Televisa (who together control 95 percent of all television frequencies) because it allowed them to renew their licenses without paying for them. According to The Economist, the Ley Federal de Radio y Televisión "raced through Congress confirming the country's longstanding television duopoly" and constituted a "giveaway of radio spectrum and a provision that allows broadcasting licenses to be renewed more or less automatically".

Carriage disputes

Since February 13th, 2012, TV Azteca networks (Azteca 7, Azteca 13, and Proyecto 40) are being dropped by Mexican cable-TV carriers representing more than 4 million subscribers in a dispute over terms. Cableoperators claim that Azteca wants to charge a fee by packaging its over-the-air stations with cable networks, such as news and soap opera channels, which may represent a higher cost for their suscribers.

See also

• Grupo Salinas
  • TV Azteca
    • Azteca 7
    • Azteca Trece
    • XHTVM-TV
    • Azteca América
  • Grupo Elektra
  • Banco Azteca
  • Seguros Azteca
  • Iusacell

External links

• TV Azteca Official website
• Sub-official blog website (in spanish)
• TV Azteca Investor Relations
• SEC accusation
• Denying of the Azteca 13 Internacional by Canadian Authorities
• SEC accuses Mexican firm of fraud (BBC)
• TV Azteca's legal accusation against Francisco Gil Díaz (PDF format)(Spanish)