Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, and other political leaders presented an overhaul of laws regulating the country’s telecommunications industry, the most comprehensive effort yet to control television and telephone companies there, Elisabeth Malkin writes. If passed, the rules would give regulators the ability to require a company with control of a majority of the Mexican market to divest some assets or submit to special rules to prevent it from abusing its market dominance. Companies like Carlos Slim Helú’s América Móvil, which controls more than 70 percent of Mexico’s phone and Internet lines, and dominant broadcasters Televisa and TV Azteca could be reined in if the rules make it through a series of legislative hurdles that await.

Fox Sports 1, the all-sports cable channel coming this summer, will have epic levels of boola-boola in its bloodstream, much like rival ESPN, Richard Sandomir reports. The network’s college roster features the new Big East conference, the Big 12, the Pacific-12 and Conference USA. Fox also owns 51 percent of the Big Ten Network, broadcasts the Big Ten football championship game and alternates the Pac-12 football title game with ESPN. It spent at least $500 million for the rights to broadcast the new Big East, a basketball-only conference formed by seven Catholic colleges, for 12 years. ESPN will pay about $20 million annually to carry the old Big East conference, which will feature Connecticut, Cincinnati, Temple, South Florida, Navy (in football only) and new teams from the South.

Lowe’s, the home improvement retailer, is beginning an ad campaign based on multiple platforms, Jane L. Levere writes. The ads include a 60-second spot that began running on Monday featuring a family moving into a new home, improving it and inspiring neighbors to do the same; an ad targeting men that will appear during the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament that likens home improvement to a sport; and 15-second TV spots that will run in different parts of the country based on different weather conditions as spring advances. Digital commercials will be determined by the weather — one ad begins by saying Sunday’s forecast is sunny and 68 degrees, then continues “It’s a beautiful day outside. Now’s the time to clean up your yard.” Lowe’s executives hope the campaign will help them gain ground on Home Depot.

The Unicef Tap Project is relying on social media and celebrities to raise money for clean water for children, Jane L. Levere reports. The agency Droga5 has created a Facebook app that lets users make a $5 donation, using PayPal or a text message, and then turn on their own tap, which allows them to send water to two friends who are then able to donate. The campaign began last week and will be heavily promoted through March, especially by celebrities like Angie Harmon, Alyssa Milano, Marcus Samuelsson and Nas, who will start their own water networks or promote the effort on Twitter. Ryutaro Mizuno, managing director of research and marketing for the U.S. Fund for Unicef, said the campaign hoped to raise $1 million.

Chris Suellentrop asks Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s pioneering video game designer, about the industry’s direction and the disappointing sales of Nintendo’s newest console, the Wii U, in an interview.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/the-breakfast-meeting-regulating-mexicos-telecom-industry-and-foxs-push-for-college-sports/?partner=rss&emc=rss