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

TV Azteca is a major Mexican company that works with many types of media, like TV and radio. It is also known as Televisión Azteca. This company is part of a larger group called Grupo Salinas.

TV Azteca is the second-largest media company in Mexico, right after Televisa. It mostly competes with Televisa, but also with some smaller local TV channels. TV Azteca owns two main national TV channels, Azteca Uno and Azteca 7. It also runs two other channels that are available across the country: adn40 and A Más+. All these channels have broadcast towers in most big and small cities in Mexico.

TV Azteca also has a channel called Azteca Trece Internacional. This channel reaches 13 countries in Central and South America. It used to be part of the Azteca América network in the United States. The main news show for TV Azteca is called Hechos.

How TV Azteca Started
- From Government to Private Company
- Growing Bigger
What TV Azteca Offers
Other Businesses of TV Azteca
- Acting School
- Music Company
Logos Through the Years
See also

How TV Azteca Started

From Government to Private Company

TV Azteca building in Chihuahua City, Chihuahua.

In the early 1990s, the Mexican government decided to sell many of its businesses. This happened during the time Carlos Salinas de Gortari was president. One of the businesses sold was a government TV company called Imevisión.

Imevisión owned two national TV channels and three local ones. To get ready for the sale, the Imevisión channels were divided into several new companies. The biggest of these new companies was named Televisión Azteca.

Most of these TV channels were bought by one bidder. On July 18, 1993, the Mexican government announced that a group led by Ricardo Salinas Pliego won the auction. This group bought the government's media package, which included Imevisión's TV studios in Mexico City. The winning bid was about US$645 million.

The new group quickly started using the name Televisión Azteca for all its operations. It soon became a strong competitor to Televisa. Before this, Televisa had almost a complete monopoly on TV in Mexico. After TV Azteca started, it became a duopoly, meaning two big companies controlled most of the TV channels. Together, these two companies owned 97 percent of the commercial TV channels in Mexico.

Growing Bigger

TV Azteca building in Mérida, Yucatán.

In 1998, TV Azteca announced it would invest US$25 million in a TV station called XHTVM-TV. This station was owned by Javier Moreno Valle. As part of the deal, Azteca helped organize TVM and took control of selling ads and most of the TV shows. Moreno Valle's news service, CNI, kept some time slots for its news shows.

However, in 2000, Moreno Valle ended the contract with Azteca. He said Azteca was using CNI's time and not following the agreement. In December 2002, Azteca used private security to take back control of the XHTVM buildings in Mexico City. But the Mexican government stepped in and made Azteca give up control of XHTVM.

Later, in 2005, CNI faced problems like an employee strike. Moreno Valle also had legal issues. Because of this, Azteca was able to buy the rest of the station. In 2006, Azteca took control of XHTVM again, renaming it Proyecto 40.

TV Azteca building in Querétaro City, Querétaro.

On March 7, 2011, TV Azteca changed its name to Azteca. This was to show that it had grown into a company that did more than just TV. However, in May 2016, the name TV Azteca was brought back.

TV Azteca is the second-largest media company in Mexico, after Televisa. These two big companies control 97% of the media in Mexico. TV Azteca was started in 1993 by Ricardo Salinas Pliego. TV Azteca owns about 31% of the 465 TV channels in Mexico.

TV Azteca is part of a larger group called Grupo Salinas. This group also owns banks, insurance companies, and other businesses. TV Azteca also gets important contracts from the Mexican government. This means the news they show can sometimes be influenced by the government. The news often includes advertising and entertainment, with some celebrity news and opinions.

In March 2023, TV Azteca faced some financial challenges. Some groups asked a court in the U.S. to help sort out the company's money issues. However, in April, TV Azteca asked the judge to stop the case in the U.S. They felt it made more sense to handle the financial reorganization in Mexico. On June 1, 2023, TV Azteca's shares were temporarily stopped from being traded on the Mexico Stock Exchange.

What TV Azteca Offers

TV Channels in Mexico

TV Azteca runs several TV channels in Mexico:

Network	Main Channel	What You Can Watch
Azteca Uno	XHDF 1	General shows, news, and new telenovelas (soap operas)
Azteca 7	XHIMT 7	General shows, sports, and TV series
adn40	XHTVM 40	News and shows that give information

TV Channels Outside Mexico

TV Azteca also has channels in other countries:

Network	Main Channel	What You Can Watch
TV Azteca Guate	N/A	A channel in Guatemala with shows from TV Azteca's Mexican channels and local news
TV Azteca Honduras	N/A	A channel in Honduras with shows from TV Azteca's Mexican channels and local news

Past Channels

Azteca América: This was an American TV network that showed programs from TV Azteca's channels in Mexico and local news. It stopped operating on December 31, 2022.
KAZA-TV was the main channel for Azteca América from 2001 to 2018. It was later sold and changed its programming.

Cable Channels

TV Azteca also has several channels available on cable TV:

Az Noticias (News)
Az Clic! (also called Azteca Clic)
Az Mundo (World)
Az Corazón (Heart, often showing romantic dramas)
Az Cinema (Movies)
Azteca Trece -1 hora (Azteca Uno, one hour earlier)
Azteca Trece -2 horas (Azteca Uno, two hours earlier)
Romanza+ África (An African channel)

Other Businesses of TV Azteca

TV Azteca is part of the larger Grupo Salinas company. This group includes:

Grupo Elektra: A chain of department stores.
Banco Azteca: A bank.
Seguros Azteca: A life insurance company.

TV Azteca also owns a soccer team in Liga MX called Monarcas Morelia.

Acting School

The company has its own acting school called Centro de Estudios y Formación Actoral (CEFAT). Many actors have studied there, including Iliana Fox, Luis Ernesto Franco, and Bárbara Mori.