With just two days left to go until Trump’s inauguration, one of the President-elect’s biggest opponents during the presidential campaign, Mexican billionaire and the country’s richest man Carlos Slim, said on Tuesday that his cell-phone company America Movil is launching a a TV channel in the United State, Nuestra Vision, which “is focused on Mexicans, made by Mexicans and transmitted from Mexico,” putting it into competition with broadcasters like Univision and Telemundo.
The news comes at the same time as the Globe and Mail reported that Trump will begin NAFTA renegotiation within days of his inauguration, with an emphasis on trade and immigration policies that could several impact Mexico’s economy.
Slim’s new channel will be offered by the America Movil unit Publicidad y Contenido Editorial, the company said in a statement that was flanked by a promotional video online. Nuestra Vision – “Our Vision” – will broadcast news, movies and sports highlights, America Movil said, stressing the company’s pledge to be “100 percent” Mexican and promote Mexico’s heritage. The addressable market is massive: an estimated 35 million people living in the United States are Mexican or of Mexican background.
As the FT adds, Nuestra Visión will show movies, news and sports highlights from Uno TV and Claro Sports, with anchors and reporters direct from Mexico offering daily newscasts.“The Mexican population represents the most significant segment of Hispanic minorities in the United States,” said Victor Herrera, affiliate relations from Nuestra Visión, in a statement. He saw the new channel having a wide audience “reaching every age group”. The company gave no further details on when the new channel could be launched.
Slim, a major force in pay TV in Latin America, has been kept out of the Mexican market by regulators wary of the financial muscle he can bring to bear from his telecoms empire. America Movil is the biggest cell phone company in Latin America, and helped to make Slim the richest man in the world for several years.
Univision has a close alliance with Mexico’s top broadcaster Televisa, which has for years wrestled with Slim in the Mexican telecommunications market that he dominates.
Slim’s new channel launch coincides with a charged atmosphere between Mexico and the incoming U.S. president Donald Trump, who has taken an aggressive stance towards the Mexican economy and sparked dismay with outspoken comments on migrants.
Trump has proposed taking punitive steps against producers of Mexican-made goods in an effort to bring jobs and investment back to the United States, and has also threatened to tear up a joint trade deal that underpins Mexico’s export model.
Slim was critical of Trump during the U.S. election campaign, but after meeting the New York real estate magnate for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida before Christmas, he was left was a “very positive” impression from the president-elect, the Mexican mogul’s spokesman said. Slim had previously warned during the election campaign that a Trump
presidency could be disastrous for the US. It remains to be seen if
Trump has forgiven and forgotten.
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