Bill Could Solidify Power of 2 Mexican TV Giants

Mexican lawmakers are poised to overhaul the nation’s broadcasting laws this week, a move that opponents say will ensure that two dominant companies retain their lock on the country’s airwaves.

The legislation would in effect grant new broadcasting spectrum to media giants Grupo Televisa and TV Azteca to launch high-definition television and other digital services without expressly requiring them to pay for it. Experts describe the proposed move as a massive giveaway of public assets that will cost the Mexican treasury billions and block new players from the market.

In the midst of a heated presidential race, the bill has provoked accusations of backroom dealing by the two corporations. And it has underscored the enduring power of Mexico’s business oligarchies, which critics say are shortchanging Mexican consumers, retarding economic growth and stunting the nation’s democracy.

Two key Senate committees approved the legislation Tuesday, setting the stage for approval by the full Senate on Thursday. The bill passed Mexico’s lower house in December without a single dissenting vote.

Together, Televisa and TV Azteca draw more than 95% of Mexico’s broadcast viewing audience. Televisa is particularly powerful, controlling two-thirds of Mexico’s television stations, four of six national channels, Mexico’s largest cable TV company and the nation’s only satellite TV service.

Televisa is part owner of and a major content provider for Los Angeles-based Univision Communications Inc.

The company functioned for decades as a de facto mouthpiece for the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The late Televisa chief Emilio Azcarraga Milmo once famously declared himself “a soldier of the president and at the service of the PRI.”

The PRI’s 71-year dominance was shattered in 2000 with the election of Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party. But Televisa’s influence is as powerful as ever.

Angry legislators condemned Tuesday’s vote as an act of cowardice by lawmakers trying to avoid the wrath of Mexico’s powerful TV moguls in an election year.

“Mexico, it appears, has been converted into a soldier of Televisa,” said Sen. Raymundo Cardenas of the Democratic Revolutionary Party.

Dubbed the Televisa Law by critics, the legislation has drawn fire from a wide swath of Mexican society that includes academics, free-speech advocates, media experts, unions, Mexico’s anti-monopoly agency and competitors who say the measure’s timing is no coincidence.

Mexico is in the midst of a hotly contested presidential election. Television coverage of the candidates will be crucial to the outcome in a nation where TV is the most popular medium.

Officials opposed to the proposed law say Televisa and Azteca have pressured lawmakers in Mexico’s three main political parties to push the legislation through Congress before July’s elections with the understanding that the broadcasters will continue to provide coverage of their candidates in return.

The companies and the political parties have denied quid pro quo. But the main presidential candidates have been conspicuously silent on a law that is likely to shape Mexican broadcasting for the next century.

“The fact that none of the presidential candidates has spoken out tells you how necessary it is to appear on Televisa and TV Azteca” to have a shot at winning, said Sallie Hughes, an assistant professor at the University of Miami and author of an upcoming book on Mexico’s media.

“The political process is being strongly influenced -- or compromised -- by the power of the television duopoly.”

Both companies devoted a portion of their primary nightly news telecasts Monday, the eve of the crucial Senate committee votes, to tout the legislation and to lambaste their critics.

News anchor Javier Alatorre of TV Azteca said the pending overhaul would deliver “enormous benefits for the society,” and Joaquin Lopez-Doriga, his Televisa counterpart, said, “There is no proof that Televisa offered money to legislators to vote yes.”

Even veteran observers of Mexico’s rough-and-tumble political scene say they were stunned by the broadcasters’ aggressive efforts to sway the public to support legislation in which the firms have a vested interest.

“It’s as if Dan Rather used the first six minutes of his broadcast to defend a law in which CBS had a stake,” Mexico City political scientist Denise Dresser said.

Times researchers Cecilia Sanchez and Carlos Martinez contributed to this report.