XHTRES-TDT was a full-power
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...
in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, broadcasting in
digital on UHF channel 27. From 2006 to 2015, it was the
flagship station of the now defunct network
cadenatres
Cadenatres was a Mexican free-to-air network owned by Grupo Empresarial Ángeles (GEA), a company headed by Olegario Vázquez Raña and directed by Olegario Vázquez Aldir. Originally started by its flagship XHTRES in Mexico City as an indepen ...
and from 2013 to 2020, it was the
flagship station of the
Excélsior TV
Excélsior TV is a Mexican FTA news channel owned by Grupo Imagen. It is named for Imagen's ''Excélsior
''Excélsior'' is a daily newspaper in Mexico City. It is the second oldest paper in the city after '' El Universal'', printing its fir ...
news network. It is licensed to Compañía Internacional de Radio y Televisión, S.A. (CIRT), which is owned by
Grupo Empresarial Ángeles
Grupo Empresarial Ángeles (GEA) is a Mexican corporation owned by Olegario Vázquez Raña and founded in 1998. It owns assets in the communications, healthcare, tourism and financial services industries.
Its director general is Olegario Vázque ...
(GEA), a company headed by
Olegario Vázquez Raña
Olegario Vázquez Raña (born 10 December 1935) is a Mexican entrepreneur, businessman, owner of several companies, and the chairman and principal shareholder of Grupo Empresarial Ángeles. He is married to María de los Angeles Aldir and he is t ...
and directed by
Olegario Vázquez Aldir, through its
Grupo Imagen
Grupo Imagen is a Mexican media conglomerate, part of Grupo Empresarial Ángeles.
History
Grupo Imagen traces its roots to the foundation of XEDA-AM in June 1936. This station was acquired by José Luis Fernández Soto in 1962, and in the same ...
communications unit.
The current programming of XHTRES, since February 1, 2020, is the Heraldo Televisión news network.
History
An unbuilt station
On November 21, 1964, the office of the Secretary of Communications and Transportation (SCT) granted a 25-year concession to CIRT (unrelated to the ''
Cámara Nacional de la Industria de Radio y Televisión'', the Mexican broadcasters' association, which is also abbreviated CIRT) and to its controlling shareholder, Roberto Nájera Martínez, for a television station UHF channel 16, to be designated XHTC-TV.
As of July 1989, the station had not been built, mainly due to lack of funds, and Nájera transferred his shares to Raúl Aréchiga Espinoza, with the intent that Aréchiga would “manage the bond and/or funding for the installation and operation of the channel.”
[Google translation (EN)]
/ref> Aréchiga, from Baja California Sur, had interests in radio and a concession to operate a cable TV system in Baja California Sur, and was also owner of the airline Aero California
Aero California (at times shortened as ''AeroCal'') was a low-cost airline with its headquarters in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, operating a network of domestic passenger flights with its hub at the city's Manuel Márquez de León Inte ...
; from 1994 to 1996, he would become director of the Cámara Nacional de la Industria de Radio y Televisión (CIRT), Mexico's association of broadcasters. Although the station was still not on air, in 1989, the SCT granted a ten-year renewal at the end of the initial concession period. With this renewal of the concession, the station was moved from channel 16 to 28 due to a reallocation of television spectrum; it also took on the callsign XHRAE-TV, giving it his initials.
XHRAE on the air: the legal battle begins
The concession renewal was scheduled to expire on November 21, 1999, and as the date approached, the station had not yet begun transmitting. Needing to go on the air to avoid having the concession reclaimed, Aréchiga hastily put together a schedule of music videos and put XHRAE on the air in November 1999, sparking a five-year controversy.[Google translation (EN)]
/ref> Roberto Nájera Martínez, who had transferred his shares ten years earlier, claimed that he had merely rented the award of the concession to Aréchiga.[ Nájera insisted that he was the rightful owner of the station and accused Aréchiga of plundering it.][ Further adding to the station's troubles, Carlos Ruiz Sacristán, the head of the SCT, claimed that Aréchiga failed to live up to the terms of the original concession, refused to endorse a renewal, and instead, sought to revoke the concession. Aréchiga sued, and in a September 2002, letter to Mexican president ]Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox Quesada (; born 2 July 1942) is a Mexican businessman and politician who served as the 62nd president of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006. After campaigning as a right-wing populist, Fox was elected president on the ...
, accused current and former members of the SCT of plundering the station.[ Meanwhile, the SCT became embroiled in a conflict between TV Azteca and CNI involving ]XHTVM-TV
XHTVM-TDT (virtual channel 40) is a television station in Mexico City, owned by Televisora del Valle de México and operated by TV Azteca. It is branded as ''adn40'' and available over the air in much of Mexico on TV Azteca's transmitters. Progr ...
channel 40, and had considered plans to reclaim and reassign channel 28 to help settle the dispute.[Google translation (EN)Internet Archive copy]
/ref> Bidders began to size up both channels 28 and 40, such as General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
Mexico.
Finally, in January 2005, a judge ruled that Aréchiga did not violate the terms of the concession, and ordered the SCT to endorse the renewal immediately.[ The renewal was granted on April 26, 2005, retroactive to November 22, 1999, but only lasting through May 22, 2006.][Google translation (EN)]
/ref> Even before the renewal had been granted, rumors began to flow that Aréchiga's victory was intentional, in order to clear the station for sale, either to Ricardo Salinas Pliego, owner of TV Azteca, who had lost control of channel 40 in the dispute with CNI, or to Olegario Vazquez Raña, a newcomer to the broadcast industry but an associate of Marta Sahagún de Fox, wife of President Vicente Fox.[Google translation (EN)]
/ref> Aréchiga, however, showed a determination to operate the station himself. In December 2005, the station relaunched with a new logo and slogan, “Canal para todos”, or “Channel for all”. In early 2006, XHRAE-TV signed deals with the Lumiere cinema chain to provide old Mexican movies, and with Productora y Comercializadora de Televisión, SA de CV (PCTV), to provide other programming, which began airing in April.
Google translation (EN)
/ref>
The Cadena Tres era
Things quickly deteriorated for Aréchiga, beginning in April 2006. On April 2, the SCT, which at the time not only oversaw broadcasting but also aviation, declared Aréchiga's airline, Aero California, unfit to fly and grounded the entire fleet of airplanes.[Google translation (EN)]
/ref> With his time, money and attention fully devoted to saving Aero California, and with the concession of XHRAE-TV coming up for renewal at the end of May 2006, Aréchiga could not run both enterprises and was forced to seek a buyer for the television station.[Google translation (EN)]
/ref> Some considered the grounding of Aero California as a reprisal for Aréchiga's victory in retaining the channel 28 concession.
The concession for XHRAE-TV was renewed on May 9, 2006 for fifteen years, eliminating a major barrier to the sale of the station. General Electric also attempted to buy the station and provide Aréchiga financing for the airline. A purchase agreement was reached on July 13 and announced on July 18. Administradora Arcángel, S.A. de C.V., part of Grupo Empresarial Ángeles
Grupo Empresarial Ángeles (GEA) is a Mexican corporation owned by Olegario Vázquez Raña and founded in 1998. It owns assets in the communications, healthcare, tourism and financial services industries.
Its director general is Olegario Vázque ...
, became the new owners of channel 28. The purchase was approved by Cofeco (the Federal Competition Commission) on August 24, but at the same time, GEA was fined $221,108 pesos for late notification of the purchase.[ ] Originally, the purchase price was thought to be $80 million, but turned out to actually be $126 million.[
On May 28, 2007, GEA relaunched XHRAE-TV under the name ''Cadena Tres'' (lit. ''Network Three''), creating new programs and newscasts with a general audience focus. The station's coverage expanded from Mexico City to the entire Mexican republic through various cable television systems and a handful of local affiliate stations, particularly in border cities.
By September 30, 2009, the station had changed its call sign to XHTRES-TV, reflecting its network identity.]
''Cadena Tres'' aimed to become the third major private network in Mexico (hence the name), but struggled to stay alive and expand, allegedly because of the so-called "duopoly" of Televisa and TV Azteca and laws that prevented the network to easily expand (namely, the Federal Telecommunications Act better known as the Televisa Law). Their dream of a nationwide network finally materialized thanks to the new Federal Telecommunications Act of 2013 that ordered the creation of two nationwide independent television networks, one of which was granted to Cadena Tres I, S.A. de C.V., on March 11, 2015. The concession included a transmitter in Mexico City. XHTRES was to become the flagship station of the new network. However, in a move that took audiences by storm, Grupo Imagen decided to take Cadena Tres off the air on October 26, 2015, and replace it with Excélsior
''Excélsior'' is a daily newspaper in Mexico City. It is the second oldest paper in the city after '' El Universal'', printing its first issue on March 18, 1917.
History
''Excélsior'' was founded by Rafael Alducin and first published in Mexic ...
TV. According to a message that replaced the front page of the now-defunct network website, the decision was taken in order to put all the efforts of Grupo Imagen into the new network, which launched on October 17, 2016 as Imagen Televisión
Imagen Televisión is a national broadcast television network in Mexico, owned by Grupo Imagen. It launched on October 17, 2016, at 8 p.m.
History Imagen on television
In 2006, Imagen's parent, Grupo Empresarial Ángeles, acquired XHRAE-T ...
.
Excélsior TV
Excélsior TV, which began broadcasting on XHTRES's second subchannel, was originally launched on September 2, 2013 as an offshoot of the Grupo Imagen-owned newspaper ''Excélsior
''Excélsior'' is a daily newspaper in Mexico City. It is the second oldest paper in the city after '' El Universal'', printing its first issue on March 18, 1917.
History
''Excélsior'' was founded by Rafael Alducin and first published in Mexic ...
''. It was mainly a 24-hour news channel, focusing mostly on national news. It also features other programs ranging from political debate to show business. After it replaced the signal of Cadena Tres on the 27.1 subchannel, it also broadcast paid programming (infomercials and TV ministries).
On December 17, 2015, XHTRES and other television stations in Mexico City shut off their analog signals.
From 2013 to 2018, XHTRES's 27.3 subchannel, changed to 27.2 when Excélsior TV moved up to 27.1 and then to 28.2 when the station's major virtual channel changed in 2016, carried a simulcast of Imagen Radio
XEDA (branded as Imagen Radio) is a Spanish-language talk radio station in Mexico City owned by Grupo Imagen. XEDA is the flagship station of the Imagen Radio network which is available to other Mexican cities through Imagen's owned-and-operated s ...
programming, including video for some programs. This subchannel was ended in February 2018 because Grupo Imagen could not resolve conflicts between assigned electoral advertising schedules for the radio station and the TV subchannel.
Heraldo Televisión
In late January 2020, rumors began to swirl that Excélsior TV would be shuttered and that XHTRES would be rented out to ''El Heraldo de México
''El Heraldo de México'' is a Mexican national daily newspaper published in Mexico City. Initially founded in 1965, after a 14-year absence of the name, the newspaper was relaunched on May 2, 2017.
History Original ''El Heraldo de México''
...
'' newspaper to launch a TV channel. (The year before, Imagen had sold the newspaper two radio stations to launch a radio network.) On February 1, 2020, this agreement was confirmed, and Heraldo Televisión launched on February 10. At the same time, XHTRES moved to virtual channel 10. Outside of Mexico City, where Excélsior TV was a subchannel of Imagen Televisión transmitters, the channel was replaced with "Imagen Multicast", primarily featuring simulcasts of radio programming.
References
External links
Excélsior TV
Web site (Español)
{{Mexico City TV
Television stations in Mexico City
Television channels and stations established in 1999
Grupo Imagen
1999 establishments in Mexico