V I D E O • A G E JU N E 2 0 11 4 (Continued on Page 6) Mexico’s Triple Play Battleground Three powerful figures in Mexico are locked in a battle to broaden their grasps on the domestic telecommunications market, which is estimated to be worth the equivalent of $35 billion a year by 2015. The contenders in this fight are: Emilio Azcarraga Jean, chairman of media conglomerate Grupo Televisa; Ricardo Salinas Pliego, chairman of TV Azteca and Iusacell (Mexico’s number three mobile phone carrier); and Carlos Slim Helu, who controls the majority of the phone service in Mexico. Now that technology has brought television and telephones closer together, Slim and the two television barons are at odds with each other, especially since Slim is vying to move into television so that he can offer his phone and Internet customers TV service along with their phone and Internet plans. Slim’s fortune tops an estimated worth of $74 billion. In addition to telecommunications, his holdings include real estate, retail and mining. His phone company Telmex controls 80 percent of Mexico’s fixed telephone lines and his wireless carrier America Movil is the largest in Latin America. In fact, its Mexican Telcel unit makes up 70 percent ofMexico’s cell phone service. In addition, Slim’s Prodigy Infinitum is Mexico’s largest Internet service provider. At the same time, Azcarraga and Salinas have their sights set on gaining a larger piece of the cell phone market. The pair has teamed up to challenge the high fees Slim’s phone companies charge to complete calls on their networks. According to a report, Mexican regulators estimated that those fees are over 40 percent higher than the average charged in countries with a similar gross national product. Thus, in an effort to compete with Slim, last month Televisa bought a 50 percent stake in Salinas’ Iusacell cell phone carrier. All three men are dealing low blows, with Azcarraga and Salinas filing claims with Mexican regulators that Slim has a monopoly on phone service with Telmex, and Slim making similar accusations against Azcarraga and Salinas. In January, Televisa filed a formal complaint with the Federal Competition Commission, Mexico’s anti-monopoly regulatory agency, maintaining that Slim’s Telmex is using a satellite TV service called Dish Mexico to get around its ban on broadcasting. In response, Slim pulled millions of dollars worth of advertising from Azcarraga’s Televisa. Not to be left out of the dispute, TV Azteca’s Salinas has refused to allow Slim’s companies to advertise on his TV network unless Telcel reduces its interconnection fees. It has been reported that this battle is a reminder that Mexico’s economy is dominated by monopolies, although the government did block Slim from entering TV and radio in 1990 when he bought Telmex. Masi, RAI’s “Worst DG” Leaves Mamma Since last month “Mamma RAI,” as the Italian state broadcaster is affectionately called, has a new director general: Lorenza Lei, the 50-year-old deputy DG, who is the first female DG in RAI history. Above the DG, RAI has the chairman of the board. Lei replaces the 58-year-oldMauroMasi, who, before the RAI appointment in 2009, was chief of staff for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. After he “resigned” at RAI, Berlusconi’s government appointed Masi president of CONSAP, the state insurance agency. The “forced resignation” of Masi was welcomed by RAI board member Giorgio Van Straten, who’s quoted as saying, “Today is a glorious day for RAI. The [resignation] of Masi ends a negative management subordinate to politics.” Mauro Roffi, editor of Italy’s largest TV trade publication Millecanali, described Masi as “the least qualified to run RAI” and the balance of his administration, “disastrous.” The general press was even more harsh, with some reports calling him “the worst DG in RAI’s history.” Lei’s appointment was approved by both Italy’s Minister of the Treasury, Giulio Tremonti (RAI is under the Treasury) and Berlusconi. Lei entered RAI in 1995. Before that she was a marketing consultant. Well accepted by the Vatican, Lei was in charge of the 2000 Jubilee for RAI. 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