Formation In the early 1990s, the presidency of
Carlos Salinas de Gortari privatized many government assets. Among them was the Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión, known as
Imevisión, which owned two national television networks (Red Nacional 7 and Red Nacional 13) and three local TV stations. In preparation for the privatization, the Imevisión stations were parceled into a variety of newly created companies, the largest of which was named Televisión Azteca, S.A. de C.V. With the exception of
Canal 22, which was spun off to
Conaculta, one bidder won all of the stations. On July 18, 1993, Mexico's Finance Ministry, the
Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP), announced that Radio Televisora del Centro, a group controlled by
Ricardo Salinas Pliego, was the winner of the auction to acquire the "state-owned media package", which also included Imevisión's studios in the
Ajusco area of Mexico City. The winning bid amounted to US$645 million. The new group soon took on the Televisión Azteca name for the entire operation and soon challenged Televisa, turning what had been a television monopoly into a television duopoly. The two conglomerates held 97 percent of the commercial television concessions in the country.
Expansion In 1998, TV Azteca announced an investment of US$25 million in
XHTVM-TV, which was owned by Javier Moreno Valle through concessionaire Televisora del Valle de México, S.A. de C.V. Under the deal, Azteca restructured TVM and took control of ad sales and most programming duties, while Moreno Valle's CNI news service retained some primetime space. However, in 2000, Moreno Valle broke the contract with Azteca, alleging Azteca of filling up time allotted to CNI and not fulfilling the obligations in the contract. In December 2002, Azteca used private security guards to retake control of the XHTVM facilities on Cerro del Chiquihuite in Mexico City. However, the Mexican government stepped into the dispute and forced Azteca to relinquish control of XHTVM. In 2005, an employee strike that crippled CNI, Moreno Valle's mounting legal troubles, and a deal with the 5% owner of the concessionaire allowed Azteca to buy the remainder of the station and retake control of XHTVM, under the name Proyecto 40, in 2006. On March 7, 2011, TV Azteca changed its name to
Azteca, reflecting its growth into a multimedia company. However, in May 2016, the TV Azteca name was restored. TV Azteca is the second largest mass media company in México after Televisa. TV Azteca also receives lucrative contracts from the Mexican government, and therefore the information that emits is also controlled by the actual government. The news that is normally emitted by TV Azteca is 25% news bulletins that come from advertising, and infotainment relying on celebrities and biased editorials. However, on April 26, TV Azteca asked the New York bankruptcy judge to dismiss its Chapter 11 case due to it being pointless to start reorganization proceedings for the company anywhere but Mexico. On June 1, 2023, TV Azteca was suspended from the Mexico Stock Exchange. On February 26, 2026, TV Azteca applied for bankruptcy proceedings in Mexico in an effort to strengthen finances and liabilities. The company blamed several factors contributing to its decision, including a $2 billion payment in back taxes to Mexican authorities, license payment impacts and the overall impact the company faced as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic. ==Sub-brands==