Emilio Azcárraga Milmo
Emilio Azcárraga Milmo (September 6, 1930 – April 16, 1997) was a Mexican businessman renowned as "El Tigre" for his aggressive leadership in expanding his family's media holdings into Grupo Televisa, the dominant force in Spanish-language broadcasting.[1][2] Born to radio pioneer Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta and Laura Milmo, he inherited and merged operations like Telesistema Mexicano to create a conglomerate that produced the world's largest volume of Spanish-language TV content, encompassing television, radio, publishing, cable networks, and sports franchises including Club América and Necaxa.[3][1] Under Azcárraga Milmo's direction from the 1970s onward, Televisa's annual revenues reached approximately $1.5 billion by the mid-1990s, fueled by domestic monopoly-like control and international program exports, while he diversified into assets such as Mexico's largest cable operator and a contemporary art museum.[3][2] His unyielding support for Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which he described himself as a "soldier" for, secured regulatory protections but drew accusations of using Televisa's platforms for political propaganda and cultural conservatism.[2][3] Controversies included producing lowbrow programming, failed U.S. expansions like the short-lived sports newspaper The National, and violations of foreign ownership rules leading to divestitures of American stations.[3][4] Azcárraga Milmo died of melanoma aboard his superyacht Eco in Miami, leaving a legacy of media dominance intertwined with political influence.[5][1]