Televisa

Televisa is the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world, and a major player in the international entertainment business.

It was founded in 1955 as Telesistema Mexicano, linking Mexico's first three television stations: XHTV (founded in 1950), XEW-TV (1951) and XHGC (1952). It was owned by the Azcarraga family, who had signed on Mexico's first radio station, XEW-AM, in 1930. In 1973, it merged with Televisión Independiente de México (TIM, formed in 1968) to form Televisión Vía Satélite, S. A., which was quickly shortened to Televisa.

Grupo Televisa has 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 each and are broadcast internationally.

Grupo Televisa is listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores) () and the New York Stock Exchange ().

Channels

Through three Mexico City-licensed TV stations, Televisa provides programming on a national scale throughout Mexico. These stations are:

Canal de las Estrellas - main Televisa station; mix of general and first-run programming alongside news
Canal 5 - youth-oriented programming
Galavisión - a domestic version of Univisión

Through Telesistema Mexicano, Televisa beams Canal de las Estrellas, Canal 5, and Galavisión all over Mexico. 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" ("City Channel" in English), which is a television station aimed at Mexico City. 4tv is not affiliated with any Telesistema Mexicano regional TV station, however some of 4tv's programming can be found on the regional television stations.

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 includes Telehit, which is an MTV-esque station, ""Bandamax"" a Banda, Norteño and Regional Mexican music station, ""Ritmoson"" a salsa, merengue, cumbia music station; Tele Novelas, which is made up entirely of telenovelas (soaps); the American Network, which showcases US programming; and Unicable, which showcases programming by Univision.

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

Televisa and Univision

Grupo Televisa also has an unconsolidated equity stake in Univisión, the leading Spanish-language television company in the United States. Televisa's main competition is TV Azteca which already has a television network in the US (though jointly-owned by an American broadcaster).

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. It was forced to sell off SIN in 1986, due to FCC regulations regarding foreign ownership of US television stations.

Nevertheless, 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. Now that Univisión is up for sale, a group including Televisa has been inquiring about taking an up to 25% ownership stake (the maximum allowed by US law for a foreign buyer).

Televisa was also the former owner of Fonovisa music, which it sold in 2001 to Univision.

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Channels

Televisa and Univision

See also