Mexico grants two digital television licenses with national coverage

The Mexican IFT has granted Radio Centro and Cadena Tres new licenses, thus breaking the historic duopoly in the country.

The Mexican Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) has granted Radio Centro and Cadena Tres two new digital open television licenses with national coverage.

Each of these two companies will thus have authorization to broadcast in 123 coverage areas, forming coverage throughout the national territory. The enabling titles will have a duration of twenty years.

Initially, the IFT received eight requests for opinions on economic competition matters; However, in the end only the National Information Center of Tepeyac Studies, Grupo Radio Centro and Cadena Tres submitted their economic and coverage proposals.

Grupo Radio Centro obtained 100 points out of a possible 100, and Cadena Tres obtained 83.64 points out of a possible 100, both meeting the requirements established in the bidding rules.

Gabriel Contreras, president of the IFT, has assured that "as there was no joint request by any of the bidders and there were two separate proposals, the ruling was issued that same day, granting each of them a television channel."

Cadena Tres' economic offer was 1,808 million pesos, while Grupo Radio Centro made an economic offer for 3,058 million pesos. Both presented a guarantee of 415 million pesos for each proposal.

Radio Centro controls 15 radio stations in Mexico and the United States and at the end of 2014 reported total assets of 3,58.9 million pesos. Its market capitalization reached two thousand 929 million pesos.

Cadena Tres currently operates a license as part of Grupo Imagen, which in addition to radio stations includes the newspaper Excélsior and several publications.