TV Azteca facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Televisión Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V.

Trade name	TV Azteca
Type	Sociedad Anónima Bursátil de Capital Variable
Traded as	BMV: AZTECACPO BMAD: XTZA
ISIN	ISIN: [https://isin.toolforge.org/?language=en&isin=MX01AZ060013 MX01AZ060013]
Industry	Mass media
Predecessor	Imevisión (1983-1993)
Founded	August 2, 1993; 31 years ago (1993-08-02)
Founder	Hugo Salinas Price
Headquarters	Mexico City , Mexico
Key people	Benjamín Salinas Sada (CEO) Ricardo Salinas Pliego (President)
Products	Television broadcasting, radio and multimedia
Revenue	US$ 3.9 Billion (2012)
Net income	US$ 2 Billion (2012)
Number of employees	6,000
Parent	Grupo Salinas

Televisión Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., commonly known as TV Azteca, is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as some local operators. It owns two national television networks, Azteca Uno and Azteca 7, and operates two other nationally distributed services, adn40 and A Más+. All three of these networks have transmitters in most major and minor cities.

TV Azteca also operates Azteca Trece Internacional, reaching 13 countries in Central and South America, and formerly part of the Azteca América network in the United States. Its flagship program is the newscast Hechos.

History

Formation

TV Azteca, Chihuahua City, Chihuahua.

In the early 1990s, the presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari privatized many government assets. Among them was the Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión, known as Imevisión, which owned two national television networks (Red Nacional 7 and Red Nacional 13) and three local TV stations. In preparation for the privatization, the Imevisión stations were parceled into a variety of newly created companies, the largest of which was named Televisión Azteca, S.A. de C.V.

With the exception of Canal 22, which was spun off to Conaculta, one bidder won all of the stations. On July 18, 1993, Mexico's Finance Ministry, the Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP), announced that Radio Televisora del Centro, a group controlled by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, was the winner of the auction to acquire the "state-owned media package", which also included Imevisión's studios in the Ajusco area of Mexico City. The winning bid amounted to US$645 million. The new group soon took on the Televisión Azteca name for the entire operation and soon challenged Televisa, turning what had been a television monopoly into a television duopoly. The two conglomerates held 97 percent of the commercial television concessions in the country.

Expansion

TV Azteca, Mérida, Yucatán.

In 1998, TV Azteca announced an investment of US$25 million in XHTVM-TV, which was owned by Javier Moreno Valle through concessionaire Televisora del Valle de México, S.A. de C.V. Under the deal, Azteca restructured TVM and took control of ad sales and most programming duties, while Moreno Valle's CNI news service retained some primetime space. However, in 2000, Moreno Valle broke the contract with Azteca, alleging Azteca of filling up time allotted to CNI and not fulfilling the obligations in the contract. In December 2002, Azteca used private security guards to retake control of the XHTVM facilities on Cerro del Chiquihuite in Mexico City. However, the Mexican government stepped into the dispute and forced Azteca to relinquish control of XHTVM. In 2005, an employee strike that crippled CNI, Moreno Valle's mounting legal troubles, and a deal with the 5% owner of the concessionaire allowed Azteca to buy the remainder of the station and retake control of XHTVM, under the name Proyecto 40, in 2006.

TV Azteca, Querétaro City, Querétaro.

On March 7, 2011, TV Azteca changed its name to Azteca, reflecting its growth into a multimedia company. However, in May 2016, the TV Azteca name was restored.

TV Azteca is the second largest mass media company in México after Televisa. These two big organizations control the 97% of mass media in Mexico. TV Azteca was funded in 1993 by Ricardo Salinas Pliego. TV Azteca has 31% of the 465 television concessions in México. The auction of the state channels and the granting of further concessions to TV Azteca further strengthen their connection. It also owns Azteca banks, Azteca insurance, Iusacell, programing pay television, cinemas, live theater, news channels, newspapers, Azteca music, an acting school, Azteca consumer products, Azteca internet, Azteca series, Azteca sports, stadiums, etc. TV Azteca is another company which also serves the government however to a much lesser extent than Televisa. TV Azteca also receives lucrative contracts from the Mexican government, and therefore the information that emits is also controlled by the actual government. The news that is normally emitted by TV Azteca is 25% news bulletins that come from advertising, and infotainment relying on celebrities and biased editorials.

On March 21, 2023, creditors for the company pushed the company into an involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in the U.S. However, on April 26, TV Azteca asked the New York bankruptcy judge to dismiss its Chapter 11 case due to it being pointless to start reorganization proceedings for the company anywhere but Mexico. On June 1, 2023, TV Azteca was suspended from the Mexico Stock Exchange.

Sub-brands

Azteca Deportes

Azteca Novelas y Series

Services

Terrestrial networks

In Mexico

Outside Mexico

Formerly owned

• Azteca América: American broadcast network with programming from TV Azteca's three television national networks in Mexico and local news. The owner, HC2 Holdings, continued to use the Azteca branding under license. Ceased operations on December 31, 2022.
• KAZA-TV used to be the flagship of Azteca América from 2001 to 2018 but was sold to Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, which stripped KAZA of its flagship status, and was replaced by MeTV as an O&O.

Cable

• Az Noticias
• Az Clic! (also broadcast as Azteca Clic)
• Az Mundo
• Az Corazón (also broadcast)
• Az Cinema
• Azteca Trece -1 hora
• Azteca Trece -2 horas
• Romanza+ África - African channel
• AZTECA (OWL)+MAYA(CROW) = ZTECAJA MONKEY

Holdings

TV Azteca is part of the conglomerate Grupo Salinas, which includes the Grupo Elektra franchise of department stores, the Banco Azteca bank, and Seguros Azteca life insurance. TV Azteca also owns Liga MX soccer club, Monarcas Morelia.

Acting school

The network has set up an acting school, Centro de Estudios y Formación Actoral (CEFAT). Alumni include Iliana Fox, Luis Ernesto Franco, Adriana Louvier, Fran Meric, Bárbara Mori, Laura Palma and Adrián Rubio.

Record label

The network also owns a record label, Azteca Music, which was founded in 1996.

Logos

• 

  1993-1994

• 

  1994-1996

• 

  1996-2011

• 

  2011-2016

• 

  2016-present

See also

In Spanish: TV Azteca para niños

• Televisa
• List of Broadcasting Companies in Latin America