For decades, two companies controlled nearly everything Mexicans watched on television. Televisa, founded in the 1950s, grew into a media powerhouse with a virtual monopoly on broadcast television for over three decades.
Televisa programming, from telenovelas to news, reached into virtually every home, and its relationship with the government, particularly the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was well-documented and mutually beneficial. The company’s power was such that its logo, an eye on a screen, was often seen as a symbol of its immense influence over public perception and political discourse.
That comfortable arrangement was disrupted in 1993. The government privatized the Imevisión television network, and a businessman named Ricardo Salinas Pliego won the bid, creating TV Azteca. For the first time, Televisa had a real competitor. This broke the monopoly and, for a while, sparked a genuine rivalry. In the 1990s, both networks fought hard for viewers with new telenovelas, sports broadcasts, and news programs.
At the time, it was assumed that competition would result in a degree of political and social openness, as both channels sought to cover a changing Mexico. However, over time, the fierce competition settled into a more comfortable pattern. Instead of truly differentiating themselves, Televisa and TV Azteca began to resemble each other, both in the type of entertainment they produced and in their approach to political power. They formed a duopoly, working in tandem to protect their shared interests rather than fiercely competing for audience and market share.
Their influence on Mexican society and politics cannot be overstated. For generations, these two networks were the primary sources of news and entertainment for most Mexicans. This gave them enormous power to shape public opinion. Critics have long accused them of biased news coverage that favored those in power. A famous example occurred during the 2012 presidential election, when Televisa was accused of running a de facto propaganda campaign for PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, giving him favorable coverage while suppressing criticism, in exchange for lucrative government advertising contracts. This symbiotic relationship with the state was a cornerstone of their business model. They provided positive coverage and access to the masses, and in return, they received a steady flow of revenue from government advertising and benefited from regulations that protected their dominance. This arrangement made them incredibly wealthy and politically untouchable for a long time.
Today, both networks are in serious trouble, and the old rules no longer apply. They are losing viewers and money, and their grip on Mexican society is slipping. There are three main reasons for this decline. The first is a massive shift in how people watch television.
The rise of streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, and social media has shattered the old broadcast model . Viewers, especially younger ones, are cutting the cord and choosing what to watch on their own time. This has led to a steep drop in audiences for traditional TV. Televisa, for example, has been bleeding subscribers from its satellite TV service, Sky, losing over 330,000 in just the first quarter of 2025 and seeing a 13.2% revenue drop in that unit. Its overall revenue has fallen for years.
The second factor is the collapse of their traditional advertising revenue. For decades, the government was its biggest advertiser. Under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office in 2018, that spigot was nearly turned off. His administration slashed federal advertising spending by over 70% compared to his predecessors. During Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year government, Televisa received nearly 10 billion pesos in government ads, and TV Azteca received almost 6 billion. In the first five years of the López Obrador administration, Televisa’s take dropped by nearly 85%, and TV Azteca’s by over 78%. At the same time, private advertising revenue is drying up as companies shift spending to digital platforms, which now capture the majority of ad revenue in Mexico.
The third factor is financial mismanagement and debt, which has hit TV Azteca much harder. The company has been in a dire financial state for years. It has defaulted on bond payments to international investors, leading to lawsuits and a downgrade of its debt to “junk”. It has also been embroiled in a massive tax dispute with the government, with the Supreme Court confirming a debt of over 48 billion pesos (well over US$3 billion).
After the ruling, Grupo Azteca saw its stock price collapse and stopped publishing financial reports in 2023. Televisa’s financial situation, while serious, is not as catastrophic. It has also seen its credit rating downgraded and its profits plummet by 66% drop during 2025.