Wall Street Journal | March 23, 2011 | Anthony Harrup
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)–Mexico’s largest mobile phone operator, America Movil SAB (AMX, AMX.MX) unit Telcel, said Wednesday that it has filed complaints with the country’s antitrust regulator against broadcasters Grupo Televisa SAB (TV, TLEVISA.MX) and TV Azteca SAB (TVAZTCA.MX), as well as companies in the cable TV industry, accusing them of manipulating the television market and advertising rates.
The complaint with the Federal Competition Commission, or CFC, is the latest in a series of actions, charges and countercharges between the phone companies controlled by Carlos Slim and the country’s broadcasters and smaller phone operators, including cable TV companies
Slim companies pulled their advertising from Televisa this year in a dispute over rates. They said TV Azteca then conditioned the sale of advertising on Telcel lowering its interconnection rates for Iusacell, a mobile operator controlled by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, who also controls TV Azteca.
Luis Nino de Rivera, a spokesman for Grupo Salinas, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that TV Azteca is ready to sell advertising to Slim companies such as Telcel, Telefonos de Mexico SAB (TMX, TELMEX.MX) and Grupo Carso SAB (GPOVY, GCARSO.MX) at fair rates. He said Azteca had raised advertising rates for the companies for the first time in five years as market conditions improved for sellers.
Telcel said its complaint to the CFC includes charges of agreements among competitors to manipulate advertising rates; agreements to divide up certain markets among competitors, including advertising and broadcast television; the conditioned sale of advertising; and agreements among competitors and other economic agents to pressure Telcel and others into accepting “discriminatory conditions” in advertising and interconnection.
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