ABSTRACT
At the beginning of 1972 there were 79 television stations in Mexico, all but one of which were commercial. The business was, like the radio business, highly competitive for its audience, and this dictated key factors like location, demographic coverage and the message orientation of the business organisations holding the franchises. In May 1972 the government officially recognised the inequities of this situation. It established Televisión Rural de México (TRM), a television network specifically devised to supplement commercial systems in the grossly under-serviced rural regions. TRM did not attempt to compete with existing systems. It chose its service areas and focused its programming with the aim of reaching territories and audiences hitherto neglected. The primarily ‘communications’ orientation of commercial television goes beyond a solely ‘video’ point of view. In addition to its contribution to the development of Mexican television, Televisa had assumed by 1977 the role of a full-blown communications conglomerate consisting of 45 participating companies.
