Televisa pulls ECO

News channel's demise comes amid cost cuts

MEXICO CITY — Televisa is shutting down its 13-year-old pan-regional news net ECO as the Mexican media conglom continues to slash costs.

Officially, Televisa refused to comment, but a senior exec told Daily Variety that the 24-hour news operation was to begin transmitting lifestyle and entertainment show repeats yesterday. The fate of ECO’s 200 employees is unclear.

The move is part of Televisa’s attempt to cut $50 million from this year’s $1.4 billion budget as advertisers become increasingly edgy about an economic slowdown.

Lagging in the ratings, ECO was an obvious target. Televisa had attempted to boost the channel via a 1998 alliance with Latin American broadcasters.

CBS/Telenoticias, a former rival, went bankrupt before it was bought in 2000 by U.S. Hispanic net Telemundo, which rechristened it Telemundo Intl. and revamped the programming. CNN en Espanol remains the only panregional Spanish-lingo news net.

On the producer front, Televisa will not start any costly new historical telenovelas. Soap production is unlikely to be affected, as cheaper contemporary dramas will make up the shortfall, the exec said, adding, “The same shows are going to be made for less money.”

Further details of cuts will be announced with Televisa’s first-quarter report, skedded for release this coming Wednesday.

“These moves indicate just how much profligate spending still goes on,” one New York analyst told Daily Variety. “Televisa still does enough gratuitous spending that they can make these cuts without affecting ratings.”

(Mary Sutter in Miami contributed to this report.)

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