Televisa's Media Realm Keeps Growing

TELEVISA, technically an independent company, is big and getting bigger. It is widely thought to be attempting to expand its Mexico City television channels and going national through existing affiliations with local channels within the states of the Mexican Republic. Televisa's radio station XEW is the oldest and most dominant in the country, and the cornerstone of its other extensive radio holdings.

In addition, Televisa controls the following: Teleguia, the equivalent of the United States TV Guide; approximately 100 other magazines; the newspaper Ovaciones; its own chain of theaters (which, of course, get free TV advertising unavailable to their competitors); 1,750 Videocentro video rental outlets (which are just now starting to face competition from the first 30 Blockbuster Video stores in the country); all the major dubbing facilities with the exception of Walt Disney studios; as well as night cl ubs, and its own talent school and agency.

Televisa has reentered the US market by obtaining a minority interest in Univision, the Spanish-language network it had previously been forced to divest after losing a 1986 antitrust action. Although approved by the Federal Communications Commission, this recent purchase was hotly opposed by many Hispanics in the US who feel that Televisa's allegedly mediocre programming will now be imposed on American audiences.