XEIMT-TDT, known as Canal 22, is a television station located in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
. Broadcasting on channel 22, XEIMT is owned by Televisión Metropolitana, S.A. de C.V., and operated by the
Secretariat of Culture
The Secretariat of Culture ( es, Secretaría de Cultura), formerly known as the National Council for Culture and Arts ( es, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes or CONACULTA), is a Mexican government agency in charge of the nation's museums ...
. It is one of Mexico's principal public television stations, with a format emphasizing cultural programming.
Canal 22 is carried on all Mexican cable systems, on 25
SPR transmitters outside Mexico City, and as an international feed on some cable systems and
DirecTV Stream
DirecTV Stream is a family of streaming multichannel television services offered in the United States by DirecTV.
The brand encompasses three separate services sharing similar infrastructure and software. DirecTV Stream, launched nationally as ...
in the United States.
History
Channel 22, Mexico City's first UHF station, signed on April 15, 1982, as XHTRM-TV, the principal station of Televisión de la República Mexicana (TRM). It was the first new television station in Mexico City since 1968, when channels 8 (
XHTM, operated by
Televisión Independiente de México
Televisión Independiente de México (''Independent Mexican Television'', known on air as TIM or Cadena TIM) was a Mexican national television network founded in 1965 by Eugenio Garza Sada. It operated until 1973, when it merged with its primar ...
) and 13 (
XHDF-TV
XHDF-TDT, virtual channel 1 ( UHF digital channel 25), is the flagship station of the Azteca Uno television network in Mexico City, Mexico. Azteca Uno can be seen in most major cities in Mexico through TV Azteca's owned-and-operated transmitter ...
, which was nationalized in 1972) went on the air. In 1983, TRM was absorbed into a new state broadcaster, the Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión.
In 1985, Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión took on the name
Imevisión
The Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión (''Mexican Television Institute''), known commercially as Imevisión after 1985, was a state broadcaster and federal government agency of Mexico. At its height, Imevisión programmed two national networks ...
. All of the TRM repeater stations that had been constructed and relayed channel 22 were linked to Mexico City's newest television station,
XHIMT-TV
XHIMT-TDT (virtual channel 7) is the flagship station and namesake of Mexico's Azteca 7 network, located in Mexico City.
History
XHIMT came to air on May 15, 1985, as part of Imevisión's relaunch of the Televisión de la República Mexicana n ...
channel 7. From XHIMT and XHDF, two new national networks, known as ''Red Nacional 7'' and ''Red Nacional 13'', were formed, and Mexico City's channel 22 was opened up to broadcast local programs. The station became known as ''Cine Canal 22'', changing its callsign to XEIMT-TV, and introduced a programming schedule focused on movies.
However, Canal 22 faced several uphill battles. As it was the first UHF station in the area, not all televisions could receive it, and its transmitter in
Ajusco
Ajusco is a lava dome volcano located just south of Mexico City, Mexico, in the Tlalpan borough of the city. It is the highest point in the city.
Etymology
Ajusco is a Náhuatl word variously translated as "source of waters" or "watered grove" ...
did not offer enough power or height to cover the city. By the start of the 1990s, Imevisión was in rough shape. In September 1990, XEIMT and XHIMT began simulcasting XHDF for the entirety of the broadcast day. In January 1991, it was announced that channels 7 and 22 would be broken off from Imevisión. Many in the Mexican cultural scene urged the government to convert one of the channels into a state-run cultural television station, a proposal accepted by the government months after.
XEIMT ended its relationship with Imevisión in December 1991, leaving the air. The next year, the government announced the sale of the remainder of Imevisión, including the 7 and 13 networks;
Televisión Azteca
TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as some local operators. It owns two national ...
would buy both networks, creating its
Azteca 7
Azteca 7 (also called El Siete) is a Mexican network owned by TV Azteca, with more than 100 main transmitters all over Mexico.
Azteca 7 is available on all cable and satellite systems. A substantial portion of their purchased programming include ...
and
Azteca 13
Azteca Uno (previously Azteca Trece), is a Mexican national broadcast television network owned by TV Azteca, with more than 100 transmitters across the country. Azteca Uno broadcasts on virtual channel 1. Azteca Uno programming is available in ...
networks from their infrastructure.
In March 1993, XEIMT returned to air with test signals from a new transmitter location,
Cerro del Chiquihuite
Cerro del Chiquihuite (Chiquihuite Hill) is a hill located in the north of Mexico City, in the borough of Gustavo A. Madero and bordering the municipality of Tlalnepantla de Baz in the State of Mexico. The hill has a height of above sea level an ...
, which offered vastly improved coverage of the Mexico City area. On June 23, 1993, with an address from President
Carlos Salinas de Gortari
Carlos Salinas de Gortari CYC DMN (; born 3 April 1948) is a Mexican economist and politician who served as 60th president of Mexico from 1988 to 1994. Affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), earlier in his career he wor ...
, Canal 22 officially reopened under the auspices of Conaculta (the National Council for Culture and the Arts) and concessionaire Televisión Metropolitana. (XEIMT operates under a commercial concession and is one of three noncommercial television stations in Mexico to do so.)
In 2001, Enrique Strauss, a highly regarded figure in the production of cultural television in Mexico, became the new director general of the station. Under Strauss, new infrastructure and programming were rolled out, improving the channel's quality.
On December 12, 2011, the channel premiered a children's programming block for the first time. The block, named ''Clic Clac'', features mostly European animated and live-action series as well as cultural segments produced by the channel.
In 2015, Conaculta was transformed into the Secretariat of Culture, a larger agency. At the same time, it acquired control of
Radio Educación
Radio Educación is a cultural radio station in Mexico, based in Mexico City. Radio Educación airs Spanish-language cultural and educational programming. The primary broadcast signal is XECPAE-AM (formerly XEEP-AM) 1060 kHz, broadcasting o ...
, which had previously been part of the SEP.
In 2016, Canal 22,
Canal Once
Once (Eleven; formerly Once TV México and Canal Once) is a Mexican educational broadcast television network owned by National Polytechnic Institute. The network's flagship station is XEIPN-TDT channel 11 in Mexico City. It broadcasts across ...
and
Una Voz con Todos, along with the state networks, shared the broadcasting rights to the
2016 Summer Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...
, which aired exclusively on public television.
Terrestrial television
On digital terrestrial television, the station broadcasts on physical channel 23 UHF and employs virtual channel 22.1. On 17 December 2015, XEIMT's terrestrial analog broadcasts were shut down as part of the analog switch-off in Mexico City.
With the creation of the Organismo Promotor de Medios Audiovisuales (now known as the
Sistema Público de Radiodifusión del Estado Mexicano
The ''Sistema Público de Radiodifusión del Estado Mexicano'' (Mexican State Public Broadcasting System, abbreviated SPR) until 2014, is an independent Mexican government agency. Its mission is to support the development of public broadcasting ...
), a government agency formerly under the auspices of the
Secretariat of the Interior
The Mexican Secretariat for Home Affairs ( es, Secretaría de Gobernación, SEGOB, lit=Secretariat for Governance) is the public department concerned with the country's domestic affairs, the presenting of the president's bills to Congress, their ...
, Channel 22's coverage has been significantly expanded outside Mexico City via the SPR transmitter network, which has a geographical coverage of 66%. All SPR transmitters (except Mexico City) carry XEIMT as channel 22.1. XEIMT is also available in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
in both standard- and high-definition feeds through several pay-TV providers.
The virtual subchannel 22.2 formerly carried the so-called "national feed", which differs from the main feed in that it skips local political advertisements and certain programming aimed for other cities. This nearly made it a simulcast feed of channel 22.1 for several years. In August 2016, the channel revamped channel 22.2's feed with a completely different programming schedule. It is currently available only in the Mexico City area; it features a similar cultural-centred programming schedule as that of the main feed, featuring new shows, delayed reruns and more movies, unlike Once Niños, which features children's programming only. On 5 December 2016, Channel 22.2 was made a must-carry channel for Mexican pay television providers.
Multiplex
From 2016 to 2019, Canal 22.2 was broadcast in HD using MPEG-4 (
ATSC
Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards are an American set of standards for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable and satellite networks. It is largely a replacement for the analog NTSC standard and, like that ...
A/72) video encoding, which is not compatible with all television sets. This allowed it to be sent at a bitrate of 6 Mb/s instead of the 10 Mb/s minimum required by IFT multiplexing and technical guidelines for an MPEG-2-encoded HD subchannel. As of 1 March 2019, the second subchannel broadcasts in the more-common MPEG-2 encoding standard at 480i.
References
External links
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{{authority control
Spanish-language television stations in Mexico
Television stations in Mexico City
Public television in Mexico
Television channels and stations established in 1982
1982 establishments in Mexico