Solid performers that buck the trend
Before TV Azteca there was only one television company of any size in Mexico, Televisa. There was no local public-broadcast competition and cable penetration remains low, at only 10% of the population. When TV Azteca was formed in 1993 the market opened up. It remains smaller than the former monopoly broadcaster but is a dangerous competitor.
TV Azteca has been called the most profitable broadcaster in the northern hemisphere. In 1997, it made a profit of $143 million. "Azteca has a higher share of overall ad revenues than the share of audience and even though they are smaller than Televisa they make more money in TV than Televisa does," says Lars Schonander, head of research for Mexico at Santander in New York. "The economies of scale don't work against them." It has only one-third of Televisa's sales but is proportionately three times more profitable.
TV Azteca tends to be the advertiser's choice in Mexico because of the audience it attracts. "We have much better demographics than Televisa," says Tim Parsa, general director at TV Azteca. "When you are an advertiser you are looking at reaching eyeballs, and then eyeballs attached to pockets with money in them."