TV Azteca, one of the largest producers of Spanish language television programming worldwide, has signed a purchase agreement with Harris
for DTV transmitters and HD encoding equipment. The purchase will bring HD to nine Mexican cities, to be launched in two phases through mid-2006.
The new equipment places TV Azteca at the forefront of digital transmission capabilities in Latin America and will provide HD content for Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey by the third quarter of the year. The services are in accordance with a rollout plan detailed by TV Azteca last August. Phase Two of the national rollout will bring HD services to Matamoros, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Juarez, Mexicali and Tijuana within about a year.
TV Azteca has a 12-year track record with Harris. The initial order includes six Harris DiamondCD DHD8P1 transmitters operating at 1.8 kW. (More than 300 DiamondCD's have been deployed in the United States at power levels ranging from 1.8-35 kW.) TV Azteca operates two national networks in Mexico--Azteca 13 and Azteca 7--and affiliates include Azteca America Network, focused on the rapidly growing U.S. Hispanic market.
