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MEDIA-MEXICO: A Larger Piece of the Pie, for the Few

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Mar 9 2006 (IPS) - Seven out of 10 Mexican television viewers watch channels belonging to the Televisa consortium, while two out of 10 watch TV Azteca channels. Radio broadcasting stations are concentrated in the hands of 13 business groups.

Although this handful of firms already has almost all of the audience and a large share of the advertising, it wants an even bigger piece of the pie, and it might get it.

In the midst of open and acknowledged pressures, especially from Televisa, the Senate has been debating, since January, a draft law for radio and television which would give even more power to that and other big companies, which also own newspapers, sports stadiums, theatres and football teams.

The draft law, approved in December by the Chamber of Deputies, is to replace a previous law in effect since the 1960s which is criticised for favouring the concentration of media ownership, and for giving governments the power to allocate and withhold broadcasting frequencies, which are by definition public property.

But far from democratising the media, the new law, which would open up the airwaves to competition, would give even more power to the powerful, letting small community and educational radio and television broadcasters sink, observers say.

The criticisms of the draft law, which senators of all parties have voiced, have been thoroughly ignored by the newscasts and talk show programmes aired by the television channels that monopolise Mexican audiences and, therefore, advertising money.


In contrast, many radio stations have aired the debate in this country of 104 million people.

“Everything about the new law shows clearly what power the television companies have and use, especially Televisa, and how politicians and members of the business community are made to serve their purposes,” media expert Néstor Cortés told IPS.

The draft law would allow stations that have already been assigned a frequency to branch out into digital services of all kinds, simply by notifying the government, while potential new competitors would have to participate in public tenders.

“Money will define the right to communicate,” Cortés declared.

Public tenders and the distribution of new frequencies would be organised and reviewed by a committee made up of government and business, according to the draft law.

Educational and community media sponsored by the government, municipalities and public universities would depend entirely on the State, while independent media like community radio stations are not even mentioned by the draft law.

The bill must now make it through the Senate, return to the lower house, and finally be signed into law by the executive branch, which could take weeks or months.

According to financial columnist Darío Celis, it is highly likely that the draft law will be approved. However, Senator Javier Corral of the governing National Action Party, one of the most prominent critics of the initiative, says the bill will first undergo major amendments.

The government of Vicente Fox, which generally has close ties with Televisa and TV Azteca, indicated that it would not interfere in the matter, but some observers say it supports the draft law.

Its swift passage by the Chamber of Deputies, at a time when the most informed and critical legislators were absent, angered academics and non-governmental organisations that had advocated reforming the law on radio and television for more than a decade.

The present legislation was convenient to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled the country from 1929 to 2000, and used it to silence critics in the media.

The “new version of the law in terms of concessions and permits is, to say the least, a step backward in what is supposed to be a transition to democracy. It’s an illegitimate bandaid solution that excludes the majority of the people, an example of subservience to the powers that be, and of under-the-table dealings,” in the opinion of Aleida Calleja, the representative in Mexico of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters.

“Now concessions will be auctioned off to the highest bidder, and a public good like the broadcasting spectrum will be given to whoever has the most money,” she maintained.

In January, after the Chamber of Deputies approved the bill, some members of the business community and broadcasters associations criticised its provisions, but nearly all of them have gradually changed their position and are now calling for it to be passed.

“These changes are due to pressure from the powerful, especially Televisa, whose lobbyists have been making offers and threats to all of those who opposed the bill in the political and business worlds,” Cortés said.

On Mar. 1, the newspaper El Universal published a transcript of a series of telephone conversations between a Televisa lawyer and legislators and businesspeople. The secretly recorded conversations show that the corporation is doing everything in its power to get the draft law approved.

Televisa, which is run by the Azcárraga family, has a corner on 60 percent of the advertising market in Mexico and operates 225 television channels. TV Azteca, belonging to the Salinas family, has 42 channels.

Televisa sells programmes and has partners and shares throughout Latin America and in the United States, and is the largest Spanish-speaking television consortium in the world.

As for radio frequencies, most of the 1,142 commercial stations on the air are managed by 13 business groups – among them Televisa and TV Azteca.

 
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