Grupo Televisa Eyes DirecTV Customers

Grupo Televisa, the world’s largest Spanish-language broadcaster, said Tuesday that it was seeking to acquire DirecTV Group Inc.’s subscribers in Mexico to become the country’s only provider for satellite television service.

“We would like to buy DirecTV’s subscribers in Mexico but not the whole company,� said Alfonso de Angoitia, Televisa’s executive vice president, during a second-quarter conference call.

“Hopefully, that will be during 2004, but I cannot comment on specific negotiations.�

Bob Marsocci, spokesman for El Sugundo-based DirecTV, was not available for comment, and the company’s Mexican spokeswoman, Marigela Zamudio, declined to comment.

Taking over DirecTV’s 300,000 customers in Mexico would give Televisa a monopoly on satellite television in Mexico, Latin America’s largest economy.

Televisa, through its Innova unit, already furnishes direct-to-home satellite television service to 938,000 customers in Mexico under the Sky brand.

Making satellite television profitable has proved difficult in Latin American countries such as Mexico, where the government classifies 55% of the population as poor, said Chris Recouso, an analyst at Bear Stearns & Co. in New York.

Sky’s basic television service costs about $40 a month in Mexico City.

“You don’t have a lot of TV households that can sustain that kind of service,� Recouso said. “You’re dealing with a very constrained market.�

Televisa last quarter took a charge of about $84 million to recognize more than three years of losses at Innova as it consolidated the unit’s earnings.

Televisa’s shares Tuesday climbed 7% in Mexico after the company reported Monday a $40-million profit in the second quarter, beating the median estimate of a $8-million loss, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

DirecTV, controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., had $10.1 billion in sales last year, with Latin American operations accounting for $554 million.