Telemundo files complaint.Telemundo, the Spanish-language TV network owned by NBC Universal NBC Universal is a media and entertainment company formed in May 2004 by the combination of General Electric's NBC with Vivendi Universal Entertainment (part of the French Media Group, Vivendi SA). GE owns 80% of NBC Universal with the remaining 20% owned by Vivendi SA. , has filed an informal complaint against renewal for the broadcast license of rival KAZA-TV (Channel 54) in Avalon. KAZA KAZA Kala-Azar is the flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship station is the station which originates a broadcast network, or a particular radio show or TV show, primarily in the United States and Canada. This includes both direct network feeds and syndication, but generally not backhauls. of Azteca America, a Mexico City-based network that competes against Telemundo and Los Angeles-based Univision Communications. The complaint alleges that Azteca effectively owns 51 percent and controls KAZA. Non-U.S. companies are forbidden from owning U.S. broadcast stations under federal law. The actual owner of KAZA is Pappas Telecasting in Visalia. Three years ago, Azteca loaned Pappas $129 million to buy stations in Houston, San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden and Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . Later, Pappas rented the stations to Azteca. Currently Azteca both runs the stations and supplies their programming. The deal also included an option by Azteca to buy KAZA for $250 million. The $129 million loan matched against the total value for KAZA yields the claim of 51 percent effective ownership. Azteca responds that such operating agreements are common and standard in the TV industry. "There is no legal merit to these complaints and that this is merely a PR ploy to damage the image of TV Azteca TV Azteca is the second largest Mexican television network. It was established in 1968 as the state-owned Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión ("Imevisión"), and was privatized under its current name in 1993. Its flagship program is the newscast Hechos. and its subsidiaries due to the strong operations and growth we are experiencing in the U.S. Hispanic market," the company said in an e-mail. A second section of the complaint alleges that Azteca lacks the "character qualifications" to own a U.S. broadcast station due to investment fraud and "strong-arm tactics" designed to exclude Telemundo from competing in Mexico. As a result, an Azteca-controlled station is "inconsistent with the public interest," the complaint states. |
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