Mexico to bolster cable-TV market competition
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Mexico to bolster cable-TV market competition

Mexico’s telecom watchdog the Federal Telecommunications Institute (has announced a revision of the program for the up-coming auction of two national television networks.

The move is designed to introduce competition into the domestic market which is dominated by two players, Televisa, which is the country’s largest mass media company, and TV Azteca.

Together the two market leaders have approximately 95 percent of the broadcast television market.

IFT said the tenders would be in 2014. The program will include 246 frequencies, or channels, and reach a bigger section of the country. Eight frequencies have been added to the list to improve coverage in poorly-served regions of the country.

The new plan reduces the number of channels in the 600MHz spectrum from 112 to 65 the IFT reported.

The government earlier this year passed a reform bill of the telecommunications industry that aims to bolster competition in both the phone and TV markets.

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