In 2025, 86.1% of Mexicans aged six and over used the internet, while a small number of private companies still held concentrated ownership of broadcasting and newspapers. The audience is moving online. Major television networks and newspaper groups remain under concentrated ownership.
Who Owns the Megaphone
INEGI’s annual household technology survey, published in June 2026, found that 78.3% of households had internet in 2025, twice the 39.1% recorded in 2015. Internet use reached 88.9% in cities and 75.2% in rural areas. Mobile phones were used by 84.6% of people aged six and over. Among smartphone users, 80.4% accessed social networks, and 90.6% used messaging apps.
Television’s audience share has fallen. Free-to-air television reached 49.1% of the population in 2025, down 12 percentage points from 2020, and viewers watched an average of 2.1 hours a day. Mobile phone use rose 2.9 percentage points between 2024 and 2025, while the share watching free-to-air television fell 4 points. Streaming services reached 36.4% of households.
Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, says Televisa and TV Azteca dominate broadcasting and describes Mexico as one of the world’s most concentrated media markets. Grupo Televisa, based in Mexico City, trades on the Mexican Stock Exchange and through depositary shares in New York. At the end of 2025, it reported 15.5 million residential paid services and 3.8 million satellite ones through its pay-TV and broadband businesses, including izzi and Sky.
TelevisaUnivision operates free-to-air channels, including Las Estrellas, and Grupo Televisa is its largest shareholder. The company describes itself as the world’s top Spanish-language media company. Its brands include Univision, TUDN and the ViX streaming service. In the second quarter of 2026, TelevisaUnivision’s U.S. advertising fell 29%, while World Cup demand lifted Mexican advertising 23% to US$353 million.
TV Azteca belongs to Grupo Salinas, which Ricardo Salinas Pliego created. The broadcaster carries its four national channels on more than 300 local stations. In July 2026, a federal judge declared the company in concurso mercantil, a court-supervised debt restructuring that TV Azteca had requested. The filing listed 1,970 debts worth 23.3 billion pesos, about US$1.27 billion at 18.3 pesos per dollar in October 2026. U.S. creditors owed about US$630 million have sued in New York since 2022, after TV Azteca stopped paying its U.S. bonds in 2021. Whether creditors will gain control of the network or its concessions remains unresolved.
New Platforms, Old Concentration
Private ownership shapes newspapers, too. RSF says Organización Editorial Mexicana, or OEM, dominates the newspaper sector and lists it as having 32 dailies, 24 radio stations and 45 websites. Several newspaper owners also run radio stations, television channels or large websites. Grupo Reforma publishes Reforma in Mexico City and El Norte in Monterrey; Grupo Milenio publishes the national daily Milenio and operates Milenio Televisión.
Animal Político and Aristegui Noticias publish online only. RSF says independent journalists increasingly publish directly on social media, outside the large media groups. The shift in distribution has expanded internet use, but RSF’s description of concentrated ownership still applies to both the broadcast and newspaper sectors.
Rules, Risk and State Oversight
A new telecoms and broadcasting law, published on 16 July 2025, created the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, replacing the Federal Telecommunications Institute. The CRT operates under the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency, the federal department responsible for telecommunications policy. The law gives the commission technical and operational independence.
In August 2026, the CRT approved audience-rights rules, including separating news from opinion and answering viewer complaints. Chair Norma Solano Rodríguez rejected claims of censorship and said repeat offenders face fines of 0.1% to 1% of annual revenue. How strictly the CRT will enforce the rules, or whether it will act independently of the government, remains unclear.
Mexico’s constitution guarantees press freedom, and RSF says the country has no openly restrictive press laws. Yet RSF ranked Mexico 122nd of 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, with a score of 45.23 out of 100. Article 19 has documented 181 journalists killed since 2000 in possible connection with their work. RSF counted eight journalists killed in Mexico in 2026 as of early October. On 9 October, gunmen killed Hamurabi Huesca Manzano, director of Pinotepa Comunica, in Oaxaca. RSF also says no law guarantees a fair and transparent distribution of government advertising, leaving small outlets exposed.