Televisa

Grupo Televisa, S.A.B,
Type Sociedad Anónima Bursátil (BMV: TLEVISACPO, NYSETV)
Industry Mass media
Predecessor Telesistema mexicano
Founded 1950
Founder(s) Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta
Headquarters Avenida Vasco de Quiroga No. 2000
01210 Mexico, D.F.
Key people Emilio Azcárraga Jean, Alfonso de Angoitia, Bernardo Gómez Martínez
Revenue increase US$ 4.0 billion (2009)
Net income increase US$ 460.7 million (2009)
Website www.televisa.com

Televisa, (BMV: TLEVISA) (NYSETV). Is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world.[1] It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract. Currently, Televisa is the second largest media company in Latin America, after Brazilian Organizações Globo. Its main competition is TV Azteca, which has been growing in popularity in recent years.

Contents

History

Grupo Televisa was founded in 1955 as Telesistema Mexicano, linking Mexico's first three television stations: XHTV-TV (founded in 1950), XEW-TV (1951) and XHGC-TV (1952). It was (and in modern-day Televisa still is) owned by the Azcárraga family, who had signed on Mexico's first radio station, XEW-AM, in 1930. Its headquarters, known as Televicentro, were originally located on Avenida Chapultepec in downtown Mexico City. The building opened on February 10, 1952.

In 1968 Telesistema's main competitor, Televisión Independiente de México (TIM), started operating with XHTIM-TV and Canal 8. At the time, both Telesistema and TIM competed with XHAW-TV, local Canal 12, which also started transmissions in 1968. Over the next four years, both networks competed in content and image until September 17, 1972, when they merged, taking on the name Televisa, an acronym for Television Via Satellite in Spanish.[2] In the merger deal, the owners of Telesistema had 75 percent of the stocks, while the owners of Televisión Independiente had the rest, which were sold to Telesistema later because of financial problems.

On September 7, 1970, "24 Horas" debuted and became one of Mexico's most watched news programs. The host, legendary journalist Jacobo Zabludovsky, anchored the program for almost 3 decades.

On August 17, 1972, Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta died, and Emilio Azcárraga Milmo succeeded him as the chain's owner.

In 1975, brothers Emilio Diez Barroso and Fernando Diez Barroso began working in the presidency offices of Televisa.

Televisa started to transmit several programs produced by Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico) (UNAM) in 1977. On March 3, 1983, Canal 8 changed their schedule to become a cultural channel, offering informative programs, debates and cultural shows, a precursor to today's Galavisión. In May 18, 1985 the frequency was changed to XEQ-TV, Canal 9.

On September 19, 1985, an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale caused widespread damage in Mexico City and left the south tower of Televisa's main building destroyed. Nonetheless, Televisa's transmissions were not seriously affected.

The old main studio of Televisa in Chapultepec

In 1991, Televisa, with help from Japanese television network NHK, began its first broadcast in HDTV, using the Japanese MUSE system.

Between 1993 and 1994 Televisa was about to buy Italian local tv station GBR, based in Rome, planning to import in Italy his mixed sport-telenovelas formula, but the transaction was finally aborted.

In April 1997, Milmo died and Emilio Azcárraga Jean succeeded him as the president of the company.

In December 1997, Televisa joined with other Mexican media companies to create a marathon known as Teletón, whose mission is to provide knowledge about physical disabilities, giving a strong message about respect, equality and support to people in these conditions. This movement from media, enterprises and Mexicans is reflected in the buildings created with the money from this Marathon, named Centros de Rehabilitación Infantil (CRIT). It is said that sponsors use it as a way to deduce taxes as the Teletón takes place at the end of the fiscal year and therefore allows companies to deduce their donations before declaring their incomes.

Televisa's logo (1973-2000).

The famed Televisa logo comes from the original 1973 design by architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, tweaked in 2001 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Televisa: the logo represents a human eye looking at the world through a television screen. It keeps the original logo's yellow and orange colors that contrast with a dark blue background while the center of the logo is a sphere that represents the known contemporary world with its focus on communications, specifically television.

Televisa today

Grupo Televisa is the second largest media conglomerate in Latin America behind Organizações Globo, with interests in television production and broadcasting, programming for pay television, international distribution of television programming, direct-to-home satellite services, publishing and publishing distribution, cable television, radio production and broadcasting, professional sports and show business promotions, paging services, feature film production and distribution, dubbing, and the operation of a horizontal Internet portal. Televisa's soap operas generally run only one season and are broadcast internationally. The conglomerate is owner of all of the following companies:

Services

Terrestrial networks

Televisa filming studio town in Chapultepec

Through four Mexico City-licensed TV stations, Televisa provides programming on a national scale throughout Mexico via local affiliates. Some Mexican local television stations air programming from all four terrestrial networks (usually prerecorded programming) on the same channel. The four Televisa networks are:

Through Telesistema Mexicano, Televisa beams Canal de las Estrellas, Canal 5, and Galavisión all over Mexico (much like the superstations in the United States than the US-like television network model of network-affiliate). In addition, Telesistema Mexicano also owns Televisa-branded regional television stations, airing a mixture of Televisa programming and regional programming. Televisa also owns a stream known as 4tv or "Canal de la Ciudad" ("The City's Channel" in English), which is a television station aimed at Mexico City. 4tv is not affiliated with any Telesistema Mexicano regional TV station, but some of 4tv's programming can be found on the regional television stations.

Cable

Televisa also operates a subsidiary called Televisa Networks. This subsidiary is responsible for the distribution of Televisa programmes by satellite. It is Televisa Networks that distributes the Canal de las Estrellas signal via satellite to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Other channels under the Televisa Networks umbrella include:

Featured Channels

Televisa also operates Televisa Radio, under the brand name of "W Radio México"; it is primarily a news and talk station.

Televisa operated Noticias ECO, a 24-hour news channel, between 1988 and 2001.

Televisa and Univision

Televisa has an ongoing relation with the US Univision network, stemming back to the 1960s, when Univision's predecessor, the Spanish International Network (SIN), was owned by Telesistema Mexicano, Televisa's predecessor. In 1986, Televisa became embroiled in a scandal with the SIN network news. The management wanted to produce and broadcast a newscast with Jacobo Zabludosky out of Miami. Half of the staff walked out of their jobs alleging Jacobo Zabludosky was a puppet of the Mexican Government who had soft views with Castro's Cuba. The Televisa management was dumbfounded, they decided to move the now renamed Univision Network's HQ to Laguna Niguel, outside of Los Angeles to produce their shows from there including their beleaguered news division. They returned to Miami two years later.

Televisa has been a longtime provider of programming to Univision and its sister networks. However, in recent years, Televisa's relationship with Univision has become strained. It was involved in a dispute with Univisión over the censoring and editing of its programming as well as non-payment for transmission of its programming to Univisión's Galavisión and Telefutura networks. In one editing incident, an episode of Con Todo was not shown on Galavisión due to a host appearing in blackface, and the show did not return to the cable station for two years. A breach of contract lawsuit against Univisión by Televisa has also been filed.

When Univisión came up for sale, a group including Televisa inquired about taking an up to 25% ownership stake (the maximum allowed by US law for a foreign buyer). However, a group of U.S. private equity firms eventually won Univision.

Televisa is also the former owner of Fonovisa music, which it sold in 2001 to Univision. Fonovisa is now owned by Universal Music (UMLE).

Televisa and Telemundo make deal

On March 18, 2008 Televisa and NBC Universal announced an 10-year multiplatform agreement that would allow 1000 hours of Telemundo programming from news, entertainment programs/specials, and sports to be broadcast over not only its Galavision channel (XEQ-TV), but also its SKY Channel and Cablevision cable system starting in April, as well as a planned Telemundo pay TV channel to be launched later in 2008. Marketingymedios On May 19, 2009 Telemundo and Televisa sent out announcement that the joint owned network will come together in August 2009. The network launched in August and is available on cable and satellite.

Purchase of Nextel Mexico operations

In January 2010 Televisa announced an offer to acquire NII Holdings (Nextel International). On February 11 Mexico's Federal Competition Commission approved a 20 percent purchase of NII stock, with the operation valued at US$1.6 billion dollars.[5][6]

See also

References

External links