ANTIQUES SHOPS

* Iusacell still evaluating conditions

* Conditions tied to advertising, programming, corporate governance (Adds analyst comments, industry background)

By Cyntia Barrera

MEXICO CITY, June 18 (Reuters) - Broadcaster Televisa said on Monday it had accepted conditions imposed by Mexico's competition watchdog to approve its bid for half of cellphone company Iusacell, but the deal was still mired in uncertainty as the latter continued to evaluate the ruling.

However, some analysts believe it would be extremely rare for Televisa to move ahead and accept the conditions without having consulted Iusacell first.

Mexico's federal competition commission, Cofeco, slapped several conditions on the transaction, which were made public last week. Iusacell said the conditions were extremely harsh, costly and difficult to meet.

The tie-up is expected to create a stronger contender in the Mexican mobile market, now dominated by companies owned by the world's richest man, Carlos Slim.

Mexico has struggled with how to create competition in its broadcasting and telecommunications industries. Those markets are defined by several tycoons who have been battling to enter each other's strongholds.

The government has so far denied Slim the chance to enter the television market, which is dominated by Emilio Azcarraga of Televisa and Ricardo Salinas Pliego of TV Azteca, Mexico's No. 2 broadcaster and Iusacell's sister company.

A Televisa-Iusacell tie-up would allow the country's leading television company to enter Mexico's coveted mobile phone market, now dominated by Slim's America Movil.

Luis Nino de Rivera, a spokesman for Iusacell's parent, Grupo Salinas, told Reuters on Monday that Iusacell was still evaluating the ruling by Cofeco.

"Each one has to make its own evaluation," he said. "The joint evaluation of the business was made a long time ago."

Iusacell has until midweek to decide whether it will accept the Cofeco conditions, which involve television advertising, programming and corporate governance.

Televisa gave Iusacell the $1.6 billion it offered for 50 percent of the mobile company months ago, before the transaction was approved by regulators.

The Televisa-Iusacell deal is tightly linked to a planned auction of television frequencies. Regulators have made a successful conclusion of the auction a condition for the tie-up to go ahead.

"If after 24 months the auction of a third television network has not been made successfully, it will automatically trigger a mechanism to dissolve the partnership between Televisa and Grupo Salinas in Iusacell," regulators said.

Under the conditions set by Cofeco, Televisa and TV Azteca will also have to refrain from forcing would-be TV advertisers to become Iusacell customers.

Asked if Iusacell was working on a "Plan B" if they decided to reject the Cofeco conditions, Nino de Rivera said: "We are working on that, in all the alternatives we have." He declined to elaborate.

Televisa declined to comment further on Iusacell on Monday.

Telecom analyst Gabriel Sosa Plata said he thought chances that Iusacell would reject Cofeco's conditions were thin.

"Televisa's announcement was agreed with Iusacell. If you are sharing half of the business, it is very unlikely that the company notifies without telling its partner," said Sosa Plata, who is also a professor of communications at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City.

However, he did not rule out entirely the possibility of Iusacell challenging Cofeco's ruling in courts. "Iusacell has always had a strategy of confrontation and litigation," he said. "Many of the decisions taken by the company (in the past) have been to generate attention and tension in the sector. It is part of the media strategy of the company."

Televisa's own attempt to team with NII Holdings' Mexican unit, Nextel, two years ago was derailed by dozens of legal challenges from Grupo Salinas' companies. Televisa and Nextel eventually parted ways.

Regulators' concerns that the Televisa-Iusacell deal could lead to additional concentration of content in the telecoms and media industries were reflected in the list of conditions, which also extended to advertising and pay-TV packages.

Televisa shares were down 1.5 percent at 55.49 pesos ($4.01) on Monday. ($1 = 13.83 Mexican pesos) (Reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz; Editing by Simon Gardner, Maureen Bavdek and Matthew Lewis)