Azteca (television)
Encyclopedia
Azteca, is the second largest Mexican
television entertainment. It was established in 1983 as the state-owned Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión ("Imevisión"), a holding of the national TV networks channel 13 (1968, state-owned since 1972) and 7 and was privatized under its current name in 1993 and now is part of Grupo Salinas
. Its flagship program is the newscast Hechos
.
In Mexico TV Azteca operates two networks: Azteca 13
and Azteca 7
. Both enjoy near national coverage, mostly via over the air TV, cable TV, DBS, and FTA. Both networks are available in HD Azteca 13 can also be seen live online via Azteca's website.
The TV Azteca also operates Azteca 13 Internacional, reaching 13 countries in Central
and South America
.
TV Azteca owns part of Azteca América
network in the United States
.
TV Azteca was the owner of Todito.com
and Unefon
, but the former was liquidated in 2007 and the latter was merged with Iusacell
which is a property of the same group that owns TV Azteca.
TV Azteca reporter Inez Sainz was involved in an incident involving the New York Jets
American football team, where Jets players were accused of making suggestive comments to Ms. Sainz while she was covering a practice session in New Jersey. The incident is being investigated by NFL and Jets team officials.
On March 7, 2011; TV Azteca changes of name to Azteca, for the subdivision simplification .
of the Federal District, it wasn't included at the privatization package by popular demand of intellectuals and was delivered to Conaculta.
To make the "divestiture" of the channels, the Mexican government has to regularize the legal status of the channels, as many of them, especially the network 7, have the status of permissions (in other words, the government allows normal people to work the signals, formally named individuals), which formally prevents its sale because the law says that only matter franchised channels (in other words, repeaters registered in the name of the company) may be transferred in sale transactions.
On July 18, 1993, the Mexico's Finance Ministry, Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público
(SHCP) announced that Radiotelevisora del Centro, a group controlled by Ricardo Salinas Pliego
, was the winner of the auction process to acquire the "state-owned media package" that included Imevisión. The winning bid amounted to US$645 million.
Rival bidders included:
) of having personally profited from a multi-million-dollar debt fraud committed by TV Azteca and another company in which they held stock. The charges are among the first brought under the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
of 2002, introduced in the wake of the corporate financial scandals
of that year.
On April 28, 2005 the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV), the Mexican Banking and Securities Commission, notified TV Azteca, Ricardo B. Salinas, Chairman of the Board, and Pedro Padilla L., Board Member of the Company concerning financial penalties being imposed in connection with administrative procedures that were brought by the CNBV in late January 2005 arising from alleged violations of the Mexican Securities Law as a result of transactions that occurred in 2003 among Unefon
, Nortel
and Codisco. The aggregated amount of the financial penalties equals approximately US$
2.3 million, of which the CNBV intends to impose upon TV Azteca a penalty equivalent to approximately US$50,000.
April 30, 2005, Finance Secretary Francisco Gil Díaz
asked prosecutors to bring criminal charges against TV Azteca Chairman Ricardo Salinas Pliego on allegations he used privileged information to trade shares, people familiar with the matter said.
Gil Díaz's fiscal prosecutor filed the 1,200-page request to charge Salinas Pliego, who controls the No. 2 broadcaster, with the Attorney General
's Office (PGR) April 27, said the people, who asked not to be identified. Regulators yesterday separately fined Azteca, its chairman and board member Pedro Padilla US$2.3 million for securities law violations.
The proposed criminal charges go beyond a civil suit brought by the SEC on January 4 that accused Salinas Pliego and his company of securities fraud for hiding a transaction that netted him US$109 million.
Just a few days before the charges were formalized, TV Azteca made a public accusation of a blackmail
attempt by Gil Díaz to avoid the transmission of an investigation by Azteca's reporter Lilly Téllez
of alleged corruption acts during the 1994 economic crisis in Mexico
. According to TV Azteca, the charges made by Gil Díaz were in retaliation for the transmission of Téllez report. The rest of the media found the accusations incredibly weak and, given the timing, suspicious: their proof was an unsigned document printed on plain paper stating the terms of the blackmail, supposedly given to a TV Azteca representative by Gil Díaz himself in his own office.
The case will test the country's insider-trading legislation for the first time since the government toughened the law in 2001 to criminally prosecute violators.
"There's recognition worldwide that until securities law violators are prosecuted criminally, civil enforcement will have a limited deterrence effect," said Jacob Frenkel, a former U.S. federal prosecutor and SEC enforcement lawyer who is now a partner at Shulman Rogers in Rockville, Maryland
.
in TVM of TV Azteca's sponsors, TV Azteca invested 25 million dollars in TVM for re-estructuration and acconditioning of high TV technology in TVM's installations in Cerro del Chiquihuite in Mexico City as part of the contract.
In 2000 TVM unilaterally broke the contract and commercial relations with TV Azteca because, in words of Javier Moreno Valle, TV Azteca don't accomplished the contract clauses, reporting red numbers in its financial documents, and he takes of new the channel signal to re-transmite their programs. TV Azteca launch a judicial demand against TVM and Javier Moreno Valle for fraud of 25 million dollars given to TVM, a verdict of an international court in Paris, resolved that TV Azteca can take the control and operation of the signal of channel 40 in UHF band, because TVM don't return 25 million dollars and don't accomplished the contract clauses, but later the signal was returned to TVM because the electromagnetic spectre of channel 40 was given to Javier Moreno Valle and Televisión del Valle de México in 1993, for the Mexican government and the Communications and Transport Ministry (SCT) of Mexico, have registered that Televisora del Valle de México is owner of the permission to operate the electromagnetic spectre of channel 40. Nowadays, Javier Moreno Valle have an apprehension and extradition orden by the Mexican government for fraud against the Mexican Treasury Department (SHCP), and continues the legal conflict for the control of Televisora del Valle de México and its installations, but 2008 ends the contract between both enterprises.
Illegally, TV Azteca nowadays operate completely the signal and installations of Televisora del Valle de México because never bought this enterprise and its permissions to operate the channel spectre.
The SEC requires companies to disclose so-called "related party" transactions because they may involve conflicts of interest.
Dan McCosh, a spokesman for Salinas Pliego and the companies he controls, declined to comment on the possibility of criminal charges. Salinas Pliego and TV Azteca denied any wrongdoing Thursday and said they would appeal the administrative fines imposed by regulators, according to a statement sent to the Mexican stock exchange.
In September, Salinas Pliego told reporters he wasn't concerned about the SEC investigation. "We are totally convinced we acted correctly, and we are going to defend ourselves," he said.
On January 5, 2005, Ricardo Salinas Pliego was charged with fraud by the SEC.
Analysts from Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.
, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
and Deutsche Bank
reduced their recommendations on TV Azteca stock on January 8, 2004, after the company disclosed details of the Unefon transaction, sending the shares 11% lower that day to 5.52 pesos. TV Azteca fell 2.8% in trading today to 5.49 pesos, down 22.4% this year. Its American Depositary receipts fell 13 cents, or 1.6%, to US7.99.
Gil Díaz asked Congress last month to revise legislation to expand shareholder rights and facilitate company share listings to spur the stock market. The changes would add to amendments made in 2001 that defined the information controlling shareholders and companies must disclose to minority investors.
The bill that Gil Díaz is now proposing would replace Mexico's 30-year-old securities law and reduce by two-thirds, to 5%, the amount of stock shareholders must own to bring lawsuits against company executives, among other provisions. He said the new law won't be as strict as U.S. legislation.
These attacks were of such nature that the Permanent Commission of the Congress of Union had to vote an 'Agreement Point' (non binding resolution), condemning the overtly propagandistic campaign by the 'TV broadcasters' against Corral and another ex-Senator, Manuel Bartlett
. However, in the original proposal of 'Agreement Point', only TV Azteca was mentioned, for Televisa did not attack either of the former.
According to The Economist
, the Ley Federal de Radio y Televisión "raced through Congress confirming the country's longstanding television duopoly" and constituted a "giveaway of radio spectrum and a provision that allows broadcasting licenses to be renewed more or less automatically".
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
television entertainment. It was established in 1983 as the state-owned Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión ("Imevisión"), a holding of the national TV networks channel 13 (1968, state-owned since 1972) and 7 and was privatized under its current name in 1993 and now is part of Grupo Salinas
Grupo Salinas
Grupo Salinas is a Group formed by several companies focused on many different sectors. Grupo Salinas started as a retail store, but since Ricardo Salinas Pliego, its current President took over the company, Grupo Salinas began to diversify....
. Its flagship program is the newscast Hechos
Hechos
Hechos , launched in February 1994 and conducted by Javier Alatorre, soon became a popular news show in Mexico. It was broadcast by the Azteca 13 network.Hechos was also produced in Chile by La Red TV when this channel was part of TV Azteca....
.
In Mexico TV Azteca operates two networks: Azteca 13
Azteca 13
Azteca 13 is a television broadcast network owned by TV Azteca, with affiliate stations all over Mexico all of which are owned and operated by TV Azteca. Azteca 13 uses Mexico, Distrito Federal's XHDF as its flagship station and its channel as part of its name...
and Azteca 7
Azteca 7
Azteca 7 or El 7 is a network owned by TV Azteca, with affiliate stations all over Mexico all of which are owned and operated by TV Azteca. Azteca 7 uses Mexico, Distrito Federal's XHIMT as its flagship station and its channel as part of its name. Azteca 7's programming is available in HD and is...
. Both enjoy near national coverage, mostly via over the air TV, cable TV, DBS, and FTA. Both networks are available in HD Azteca 13 can also be seen live online via Azteca's website.
The TV Azteca also operates Azteca 13 Internacional, reaching 13 countries in Central
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
.
TV Azteca owns part of Azteca América
Azteca América
Azteca América is a broadcast television network marketed toward Spanish-speaking families residing in the United States. As a rapidly-growing Spanish language network, Azteca América now reaches 89% of the Hispanic households in the U.S., operating in sixty-two markets nationwide. Wholly owned by...
network in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
TV Azteca was the owner of Todito.com
Todito.com
todito.com was a Mexican web portal owned by Grupo Salinas, created in 1999 and shut down in 2007. Its Chief Executive Officer was Tim Parsa....
and Unefon
Unefón
Unefón is a Mexican mobile phone operator owned by Iusacell. The company was partially owned by Grupo Salinas and Mexican industrial Grupo Saba, reached more than 2.5 million subscribers in 2006 and its network is CDMA only, using no analog base stations. After a capacity exchange agreement with...
, but the former was liquidated in 2007 and the latter was merged with Iusacell
Iusacell
Grupo Iusacell is Mexico's #3 mobile operator.-Services:The company provides cellular services reaching about 90% of Mexico's population, including Mexico City and received more licenses to cover the remaining regions in early 2005. It has more than 3.5 million subscribers...
which is a property of the same group that owns TV Azteca.
TV Azteca reporter Inez Sainz was involved in an incident involving the New York Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
American football team, where Jets players were accused of making suggestive comments to Ms. Sainz while she was covering a practice session in New Jersey. The incident is being investigated by NFL and Jets team officials.
On March 7, 2011; TV Azteca changes of name to Azteca, for the subdivision simplification .
Privatization process
It was founded on July 18, 1993; after more than twenty years under the administration of the State. Before the change, the Channel 13 television goes back to the private sector. They are "disembodied" channels 7 and 13, together with its repeaters in the Republic and Channel 2 of Chihuahua. Although Imevisión also owned the channel 22XEIMT-TV
XEIMT-TV channel 22, also known as "Canal 22", is a cultural and educational television station owned and operated by Televisión Metropolitana S.A...
of the Federal District, it wasn't included at the privatization package by popular demand of intellectuals and was delivered to Conaculta.
To make the "divestiture" of the channels, the Mexican government has to regularize the legal status of the channels, as many of them, especially the network 7, have the status of permissions (in other words, the government allows normal people to work the signals, formally named individuals), which formally prevents its sale because the law says that only matter franchised channels (in other words, repeaters registered in the name of the company) may be transferred in sale transactions.
On July 18, 1993, the Mexico's Finance Ministry, Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público
Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit
The Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit is Mexico's finance ministry. The Secretary of Finance and Public Credit is a member of the federal executive cabinet and is appointed by the President of the Republic.In Mexico the Secretary of Finance is the head of the Secretariat of Finance and...
(SHCP) announced that Radiotelevisora del Centro, a group controlled by Ricardo Salinas Pliego
Ricardo Salinas Pliego
Ricardo Benjamín Salinas Pliego is a Mexican businessman and one of Forbes World's Richest People since 2000. He serves as President and CEO of Grupo Salinas and Grupo Elektra, two holdings with interests vested in telecommunications, media and retail stores, among those TV Azteca, Elektra,...
, was the winner of the auction process to acquire the "state-owned media package" that included Imevisión. The winning bid amounted to US$645 million.
Rival bidders included:
- Grupo Cosmovision, a joint venture between different radio companies of Mexico (led by Radiorama), came in a distant second place with its US$495 million bid.
- Grupo Medcom, affiliated to Grupo Radio Red, controlled at the time by Clemente Serna Alvear, and came in third with its US$454 million bid.
TV Shows produced by Azteca
- Lo que callamos las mujeresLo que callamos las mujeresLo Que Callamos Las Mujeres , is a Mexican anthology television series which deals with the social problems of Mexican Society. The show started airing on the Mexican television network, Azteca 13 as a way to compete with Canal de las Estrellas' Mujer, casos de la vida real...
- Ventaneando
- HechosHechosHechos , launched in February 1994 and conducted by Javier Alatorre, soon became a popular news show in Mexico. It was broadcast by the Azteca 13 network.Hechos was also produced in Chile by La Red TV when this channel was part of TV Azteca....
- Venga la Alegria
- Pobre DiablaPobre DiablaPobre Diabla is a telenovela by TV Azteca in partnership with Venevision Continental, produced by Fides Velasco and starring Alejandra Lazcano, the presentation of Cristobal Lander in Mexico, Hector Arredondo, Leonardo Daniel, Rafael Sanchez Navarro and antagonistic involvement of Claudia Alvarez...
- Se Busca Un HombreSe Busca Un HombreSe Busca un Hombre is a Spanish language telenovela. The main theme of the series tells the story about private lives of a group of women who are frequent clients of “Angelica Style”, a prestigious beauty clinic...
- Va que Va
- Famosos en Jaque
- A cada quien su santo
- Los 25 más
- DeporTVDeporTVDeporTV is the Azteca 13´s sports news program produced by TV Azteca. This program provides an overview of the day, soccer, boxing, wrestling and other sports. Started in 1974, is one of the programs of Mexican TV sports coverage more vintage of Mexico...
- Los Protagonistas
- La academia bicentenario
- Pasword:La palabra secreta
Programs formerly produced by Azteca
- Jeopardy!Jeopardy!Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
- ChitonChitonChitons are small to large, primitive marine molluscs in the class Polyplacophora.There are 900 to 1,000 extant species of chitons in the class, which was formerly known as Amphineura....
- Cada MañanaCada MañanaCada Mañana was a very successful TV show that ran for 5 years by the Mexican network Azteca 13. The show had interviews with famous people, sketches, entertainment sections, dance lessons and more....
- High School MusicalHigh School MusicalHigh School Musical is a 2006 American television film, first in the High School Musical film franchise. Upon its release on January 20, 2006, it became the most successful film that Disney Channel Original Movie ever produced, with a television sequel High School Musical 2 released in 2007 and...
Mexico
Financial improprieties allegations
On 5 January 2005 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused TV Azteca executives (including chairman Ricardo Salinas PliegoRicardo Salinas Pliego
Ricardo Benjamín Salinas Pliego is a Mexican businessman and one of Forbes World's Richest People since 2000. He serves as President and CEO of Grupo Salinas and Grupo Elektra, two holdings with interests vested in telecommunications, media and retail stores, among those TV Azteca, Elektra,...
) of having personally profited from a multi-million-dollar debt fraud committed by TV Azteca and another company in which they held stock. The charges are among the first brought under the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 , also known as the 'Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act' and 'Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act' and commonly called Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a United States federal law enacted on July 30, 2002, which...
of 2002, introduced in the wake of the corporate financial scandals
Accounting scandals
Accounting scandals, or corporate accounting scandals, are political and business scandals which arise with the disclosure of misdeeds by trusted executives of large public corporations...
of that year.
On April 28, 2005 the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV), the Mexican Banking and Securities Commission, notified TV Azteca, Ricardo B. Salinas, Chairman of the Board, and Pedro Padilla L., Board Member of the Company concerning financial penalties being imposed in connection with administrative procedures that were brought by the CNBV in late January 2005 arising from alleged violations of the Mexican Securities Law as a result of transactions that occurred in 2003 among Unefon
Unefón
Unefón is a Mexican mobile phone operator owned by Iusacell. The company was partially owned by Grupo Salinas and Mexican industrial Grupo Saba, reached more than 2.5 million subscribers in 2006 and its network is CDMA only, using no analog base stations. After a capacity exchange agreement with...
, Nortel
Nortel
Nortel Networks Corporation, formerly known as Northern Telecom Limited and sometimes known simply as Nortel, was a multinational telecommunications equipment manufacturer headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada...
and Codisco. The aggregated amount of the financial penalties equals approximately US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
2.3 million, of which the CNBV intends to impose upon TV Azteca a penalty equivalent to approximately US$50,000.
April 30, 2005, Finance Secretary Francisco Gil Díaz
Francisco Gil Díaz
Francisco Gil Díaz is a Mexican economist who served as Secretary of Finance in the cabinet of President Vicente Fox and currently serves as regional chairman of Telefónica for Mexico and Central America....
asked prosecutors to bring criminal charges against TV Azteca Chairman Ricardo Salinas Pliego on allegations he used privileged information to trade shares, people familiar with the matter said.
Gil Díaz's fiscal prosecutor filed the 1,200-page request to charge Salinas Pliego, who controls the No. 2 broadcaster, with the Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
's Office (PGR) April 27, said the people, who asked not to be identified. Regulators yesterday separately fined Azteca, its chairman and board member Pedro Padilla US$2.3 million for securities law violations.
The proposed criminal charges go beyond a civil suit brought by the SEC on January 4 that accused Salinas Pliego and his company of securities fraud for hiding a transaction that netted him US$109 million.
Just a few days before the charges were formalized, TV Azteca made a public accusation of a blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
attempt by Gil Díaz to avoid the transmission of an investigation by Azteca's reporter Lilly Téllez
Lilly Téllez
Lilly Téllez is a Mexican journalist for TV Azteca, the second most important TV broadcast company in Mexico.She was born in Hermosillo, Sonora, where she worked in a local TV channel until 1994, when she was hired as main host of Azteca's main news program, Hechos...
of alleged corruption acts during the 1994 economic crisis in Mexico
1994 economic crisis in Mexico
The 1994 Economic Crisis in Mexico, widely known as the Mexican peso crisis, was caused by the sudden devaluation of the Mexican peso in December 1994....
. According to TV Azteca, the charges made by Gil Díaz were in retaliation for the transmission of Téllez report. The rest of the media found the accusations incredibly weak and, given the timing, suspicious: their proof was an unsigned document printed on plain paper stating the terms of the blackmail, supposedly given to a TV Azteca representative by Gil Díaz himself in his own office.
The case will test the country's insider-trading legislation for the first time since the government toughened the law in 2001 to criminally prosecute violators.
"There's recognition worldwide that until securities law violators are prosecuted criminally, civil enforcement will have a limited deterrence effect," said Jacob Frenkel, a former U.S. federal prosecutor and SEC enforcement lawyer who is now a partner at Shulman Rogers in Rockville, Maryland
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
.
Legal and commercial problems with TVM and CNI
In 1998, TV Azteca had a commercial alliance with Javier Moreno Valle who had serious financial problems with his enterprises, Televisora del Valle de México (Mexican Valley's TV, TVM) and Corporación de Noticias e Información (News and Information Corporation, CNI), the contract was to sell spots and advertisingAdvertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
in TVM of TV Azteca's sponsors, TV Azteca invested 25 million dollars in TVM for re-estructuration and acconditioning of high TV technology in TVM's installations in Cerro del Chiquihuite in Mexico City as part of the contract.
In 2000 TVM unilaterally broke the contract and commercial relations with TV Azteca because, in words of Javier Moreno Valle, TV Azteca don't accomplished the contract clauses, reporting red numbers in its financial documents, and he takes of new the channel signal to re-transmite their programs. TV Azteca launch a judicial demand against TVM and Javier Moreno Valle for fraud of 25 million dollars given to TVM, a verdict of an international court in Paris, resolved that TV Azteca can take the control and operation of the signal of channel 40 in UHF band, because TVM don't return 25 million dollars and don't accomplished the contract clauses, but later the signal was returned to TVM because the electromagnetic spectre of channel 40 was given to Javier Moreno Valle and Televisión del Valle de México in 1993, for the Mexican government and the Communications and Transport Ministry (SCT) of Mexico, have registered that Televisora del Valle de México is owner of the permission to operate the electromagnetic spectre of channel 40. Nowadays, Javier Moreno Valle have an apprehension and extradition orden by the Mexican government for fraud against the Mexican Treasury Department (SHCP), and continues the legal conflict for the control of Televisora del Valle de México and its installations, but 2008 ends the contract between both enterprises.
Illegally, TV Azteca nowadays operate completely the signal and installations of Televisora del Valle de México because never bought this enterprise and its permissions to operate the channel spectre.
Unefon
Salinas Pliego, 49, made a US$109 million profit in 2003 after buying debt that TV Azteca phone unit Unefon SA owed to Nortel Networks Corp. for a discounted price, and then receiving repayment from Unefon at full value three months later, the SEC said in January. The SEC alleged Mexico City-based TV Azteca, whose shares trade in both Mexico and the U.S., failed to tell shareholders about the transaction.The SEC requires companies to disclose so-called "related party" transactions because they may involve conflicts of interest.
Dan McCosh, a spokesman for Salinas Pliego and the companies he controls, declined to comment on the possibility of criminal charges. Salinas Pliego and TV Azteca denied any wrongdoing Thursday and said they would appeal the administrative fines imposed by regulators, according to a statement sent to the Mexican stock exchange.
In September, Salinas Pliego told reporters he wasn't concerned about the SEC investigation. "We are totally convinced we acted correctly, and we are going to defend ourselves," he said.
SEC Fraud Charges and Downgrades
Mexican regulators started investigating Salinas Pliego and the companies he controls in December 2003, after TV Azteca's outside lawyers publicly expressed concern about the Unefon debt transaction.On January 5, 2005, Ricardo Salinas Pliego was charged with fraud by the SEC.
Analysts from Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...
, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational banking corporation of securities, investments and retail. It is the largest bank in the United States by assets and market capitalization.It is a major provider of financial services, with assets of $2 trillion and according to Forbes magazine is...
and Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
reduced their recommendations on TV Azteca stock on January 8, 2004, after the company disclosed details of the Unefon transaction, sending the shares 11% lower that day to 5.52 pesos. TV Azteca fell 2.8% in trading today to 5.49 pesos, down 22.4% this year. Its American Depositary receipts fell 13 cents, or 1.6%, to US7.99.
Gil Díaz asked Congress last month to revise legislation to expand shareholder rights and facilitate company share listings to spur the stock market. The changes would add to amendments made in 2001 that defined the information controlling shareholders and companies must disclose to minority investors.
The bill that Gil Díaz is now proposing would replace Mexico's 30-year-old securities law and reduce by two-thirds, to 5%, the amount of stock shareholders must own to bring lawsuits against company executives, among other provisions. He said the new law won't be as strict as U.S. legislation.
Federal Radio and Television Law
TV Azteca is known for its attacks on Javier Corral (ex Congressman, PAN) for his opposition to the Ley Federal de Radio y Televisión (LFRT), the Federal Radio and Television Law, a bill concerning the licensing and regulation of the electromagnetic spectrum. The LFRT was favourable to both TV Azteca and Televisa (who together control 95 percent of all television frequencies) because it allowed them to renew their licenses without paying for them. Javier Corral, by leading the campaign against the LFRT, became the object of attacks by TV Azteca.These attacks were of such nature that the Permanent Commission of the Congress of Union had to vote an 'Agreement Point' (non binding resolution), condemning the overtly propagandistic campaign by the 'TV broadcasters' against Corral and another ex-Senator, Manuel Bartlett
Manuel Bartlett
Manuel Bartlett Díaz , was Mexican Secretary of the Interior during the six year term of Miguel de la Madrid, from December 1, 1982 to November 30, 1988. During the first years of the Carlos Salinas government he was Secretary of Public Education, position he left after being nominated by the PRI...
. However, in the original proposal of 'Agreement Point', only TV Azteca was mentioned, for Televisa did not attack either of the former.
According to The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, the Ley Federal de Radio y Televisión "raced through Congress confirming the country's longstanding television duopoly" and constituted a "giveaway of radio spectrum and a provision that allows broadcasting licenses to be renewed more or less automatically".
Alleged documentary on Satanism
The website tvtropes.org, in the section titled "Cowboy Bebop at his computer, claims that TV Azteca, through the series "Ojo de Huracan" claimed that Pikachu spelled backwards in Hebrew meant "More powerful than God." and that the TV series Pokémon is satanic.External links
- TV Azteca Official website
- Sub-official blog website (in spanish)
- TV Azteca Investor Relations
- SEC accusation
- Denying of the Azteca 13 Internacional by Canadian Authorities
- SEC accuses Mexican firm of fraud (BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
) - TV Azteca's legal accusation against Francisco Gil Díaz (PDF format)